The Secrets of Rapture
by PMOHWinters
Summary: For years, nobody knew what became of Andrew Ryan and his multibillion dollar corporation. After two long decades, the UNSC has finally found Rapture, Ryan's greatest triumph and tragedy. HaloBioshock
1. Chapter 1

AN: Well, here's my cheap excuse to write another chapter on my beloved little Marine squad and a crossover fic at the same time. I guess it's only right for me to state the obvious legal stuff like I don't own Halo, Bioshock, or any of their associated properties. Enjoy!

"_I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question:  
__Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow?  
__  
__No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor.  
__No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God.  
__No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone._

_I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something  
__different. I chose the impossible. I chose…_

_**Rapture**__."_

—_Andrew Ryan_

Chapter 1: Under the Sea

**Hampton Roads Naval Base, Virginia**

Sensor Officer Paul McCullen rubbed his eyes to make sure they hadn't fallen out yet. Since the end of war, many of the posts in the Hampton Roads Naval Base were empty due to casualties and transfers to other bases to fill in personnel shortages. As a result, the remaining staff had to work extra hours in order to keep the facilities running at optimum efficiency. Currently Paul was sitting at a dark console listening for any anomalous signals coming out of Atlantic Ocean So far, the screen was dark and his headphones were silent. Paul then glanced across the room to see his fellow victim Rick. Rick was supposed to be keeping an eye on the sensor screens to make sure the airspace around the East Coast and the Atlantic Ocean were clear of hostiles. However, Paul could see that Rick was clearly not doing his job, as he was sitting face down on his screen, snoring like a dying elephant.

"Yo Rick! Wake up you lazy bum!" Paul shoved Rick roughly.

"What?" Rick yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"You!" Paul sighed. "I swear, you're supposed to be keeping an eye for any potential hostiles, not using the sensor screen as a pillow!"

"What's the point?" Rick leaned back in his seat. "That whole thing was months ago, and we haven't seen a single Covenant since then. They're probably all gone by now."

"Says you." Paul retorted. "There might be some remnants roaming around here somewhere, which is where you come in, since you're supposed to help _find_ the bastards."

"Whatever." Rick rolled his eyes, bored. "It's just going to be the same old stuff as yesterday and the last month."

"Oh yeah?" Paul pointed at Rick's screen. "Then what the hell is that?"

"Huh?" Rick glanced at his screen and noticed a small, blinking dot on the screen, signifying an anomalous signal being picked up. "Oh shit!"

Paul leapt back to his station and pulled his earphones back on. He rapidly hit a few switches and buttons to try and tap the signal in that location. "Do you have a lock on the origin of the broadcast?"

"Uhhhh, yeah." Rick glanced at his screen. "It's coming from the Atlantic Ocean."

"What, over it? Some kind of ship?"

"No…" Rick frowned. "This can't be right. The screen's saying the origin is coming from _under_ the ocean."

"That's not possible." Paul gaped. Suddenly, a burst of static revealed that he had finally tapped into the anomalous signal. He strained his ears to try and hear something, but the line was quiet except for random bursts of static. "I don't get it."

"Me neither." Rick shook his head. "I've double checked the sensors, and there's nothing wrong with them. Whatever is down there is definitely there."

"Shit." Paul muttered.

"What do we do?"

"What do we do? We report this." Paul picked up the nearby phone.

**FLEETCOM Temporary Headquarters**

**Location: CLASSIFIED**

"General Black." The secretary's soothing voice said over the intercom. "Please report to briefing room A. Priority level Obsidian."

General Marcus Black sighed and set down his papers. Black had never dreamed of ever getting a post in FLEETCOM, but with the heavy casualties from the Human/Covenant War, officers were in very high demand. Black had been stuck fighting a contingent of Covenant on a series of asteroid mines when word from Earth finally reached his location. The message he received informed him that the war was officially over and that he was to return to Earth immediately. The moment he returned, Black was immediately whisked away to FLEETCOM's temporary headquarters to work on the rebuilding of the UNSC's depleted armed forces. While Black enjoyed powers and oversight not normally granted to men of his standing, it certainly didn't mean he had less work to do. He had to spend countless hours reading over reports to make sure the UNSC's reconstruction efforts were on schedule and under budget.

However, Black was not alone. When he entered the briefing room, he saw various Admirals, Generals, and even some Colonels and Majors sitting at the briefing table. Black hadn't had the time to familiarize himself with the rest of the FLEETCOM staff, but the one face he certainly did recognize was Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, who was sitting at the head of the table.

"I'm glad you could make it all here." Hood addressed the gathered officers. "I'm sorry for the abruptness of this meeting, but the matter is urgent."

Hood then nodded to the side, prompting Black to look in that direction. Standing to Hood's left was a man wearing an ONI service uniform. Black had honestly not noticed the spook when he first entered the room, but wasn't surprised. A spy that could draw attention to himself would not be a very good one.

"Well, since it's safe to assume none of you know about what we are going to discuss, I'm going to have a request a level six information lockdown on this room." The spook glanced at Hood, who nodded and pressed several keys at his position at the table.

The special aspect of this briefing room was that it was designed to be completely impenetrable to surveillance and eavesdropping devices. The room was in the interior of the base and suspended over the ground by wires and shock absorbing springs and the interior walls were designed to be echo-proof so that the vibrations of their speech could not be detected from the outside. The interior walls were also laced with electrified copper wire and countless electronic jammers to disrupt possible transmitters, and many of the freshly minted FLEETCOM officers learned the hard way not to bring electronics of any kind into the briefing room, as a small EMP pulse generator was installed to fry any potential recording devices.

Satisfied that the proper precautions were set in place, the spook finally spoke again. "Now I suppose it's only proper to give you all some background information. Are any of you familiar with Ryan Industries?"

There was a brief moment of confused whispers and glances. Ryan Industries had once been a bustling and flourishing technology corporation, headed by the rather eccentric visionary Andrew Ryan. Roughly two decades ago, while the Human/Covenant War was still a distant Outer Colony affair, Ryan took all of his company's assets and completely disappeared without a trace. Since then, there was much speculation on where Ryan went and what he did with all of that wealth.

"I'll take that as a yes." The spook continued and activated a holographic display, which flitted between various pictures of Ryan Industries locations, staff, as well as Ryan himself. "As you know, Ryan Industries was one of the biggest tech companies and military contractors and was headed by a man named Andrew Ryan. However, what most of you may not know is that Ryan's business was plagued various complications, such as industrial espionage, numerous anti-trust and monopoly cases, lawsuits from disgruntled workers, and many more troubles. As we could see from the past, stuff like that was the death knell of any large company. The situation finally came all to a head when the stockholders considered ousting Ryan as CEO and President of the company."

"Pardon me." An Admiral raised his hand. "We have some very pressing problems _now_. Why are we concerning ourselves with a company that went under twenty years ago?"

"I'm getting to the point. Please be patient." The spook said rather harshly. "Anyways, it was at this point Ryan shut down Ryan Industries, took all of its assets including stocks, money reserves, equipment, and staff, and disappeared. Now, this was a huge scandal at the time since Ryan basically cheated his stockholders out of hundreds of billions of dollars. Of course, the Office of Naval Intelligence kept a close eye on the situation."

"Then why didn't you do anything about the situation?" Hood asked, just as surprised at this revelation as the rest of the officers in the room.

"We only had orders observe, not to interfere." The spook replied simply. "Back to the point, the agents assigned to the mission at the time kept track of what the stolen money was being used for, all under fake names and known fronts for Ryan Industries. Based on the equipment being bought and the expertise being recruited, we suspected that Ryan was planning to build a new base of operations. However, we were never able to find out where, until today that is."

The spook then hit a key and the hologram shifted into a holographic representation of Earth. The display then zoomed in until it focused over a blinking dot in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Just two days ago, a listening post detected an anomalous transmission in this area. The frequency doesn't match any known UNSC frequency, secret or not, and as far as ONI was concerned, there was nothing there." The spook then pointed at the blinking dot. "However, recent events suggest otherwise. Based on evidence at the time and some scrupulous investigation, we at the Office of Naval Intelligence have come to believe that this is where Ryan has been hiding these past few decades."

"Is there any way to confirm this?" Black asked suspiciously. There had been many claims as to where Ryan could have gone, and the rumors were just as prevalent and farfetched as the lost city of Atlantis or the biblical paradise Eden.

"No, which is why ONI is bringing this to your attention." The spook replied. "It's imperative that a discovery like this be kept top secret, because there's no telling what the public backlash might result in, especially at a time where the UNSC is weak. We're asking that we take a small unit of your most trusted and loyal Marines in order to confirm this."

Most of the officers looked around nervously. None of them were willing to hand over, and in turn potentially sacrifice, any of their units to some half-baked ONI operation based on a similarly half-baked conspiracy theory about a rich runaway industrialist. They all started shaking their heads and making excuses on how they were short handed and couldn't spare any manpower. Black shook his head in disgust. Nobody here was brave enough to stand up and commit. That was probably why none of them were in FLEETCOM in the first place.

Sitting next to him, Black noticed that it was Major Mackenzie. Black remembered him back from that Christmas operation a few years back, and remembered that he ran a tight and dependable unit. The only difference Black could see was that Mackenzie was sporting the rank insignia of a colonel.

"Can you believe the nerve of these so-called officers?" Black whispered to Mackenzie. "A pressing mission pops up and they all start dragging their feet."

"To be honest, General, I can sympathize." Mackenzie replied. "There've been a lot of Marines who've felt that they been used by ONI and tossed aside when everything was finished. Given the recent events in the war, I'm sure that idea is fresh in all of their minds."

"I know you run a tight unit." Black said. "I remember them back from Tau Serra, some of the toughest Marines out there, in my opinion."

"It's nice to know that we're appreciated, General." Mackenzie smiled. "I'm sure I can spare some personnel. But then again, that's your call, since you're technically my superior officer."

"Really? I must've missed that memo." Black grumbled. He still hadn't even gotten through a quarter of his administrative workload. "Alright, I'll handle this then."

General Black then stood up to address the crowd. The rest of the officers quieted down and the spook gave an amused look. Hood then said, "General Black, do you have anything to say?"

"I'm volunteering my Marines to participate in this mission." Black announced proudly. He could notice Hood nodding in approval and the spook smiling.

"Excellent." The spook clapped his hands together. "Well then, I believe that concludes this meeting. General, if you could join me and Admiral Hood for further discussion that would be wonderful. The rest of you are free to leave, and remember, that level six information lockdown means that not a word of this conversation is to be uttered outside this room."

The spook waited for the rest of the officers to file out of the room. They all left except for Colonel Mackenzie.

"Don't worry about him." Black preempted the spook. "He's my subordinate."

"I see." The spook nodded.

"We'll take care of the technicalities later." Hood said. "Continue."

"Right, well, I must ask that you provide nothing but the best you can offer." The spook said. "I of course have no jurisdiction over your choice of unit, but that's what my superior recommends."

"I'll keep that in mind." Black said. "By the way, I don't recall you ever introducing yourself."

"General!" The spook looked genuinely hurt. "After all these years, you can remember Colonel Mackenzie here clearly, but not me? Don't you remember that somewhat obnoxious and troublesome ONI operative on that same operation?"

Suddenly, the realization hit Black like a MAC round. "Hubbard!" He yelled in surprise.

"You _do_ remember!" Hubbard grinned. "How does it feel to be working together again after all these years?"

Black snuck a glance over to Mackenzie and Hood. Mackenzie rolled his eyes and shrugged while Hood merely grinned in amusement.

"Well then, now that we've all introduced ourselves, let's get started." Hubbard pressed another key. "We've already taken care of the logistics of the operation…"

**Edwards Air Force Base, California**

"So? How was the trip?" Karla asked as she watched the construction crews working.

"Nothing special, Major." Tarin shrugged as she stood alongside her commanding officer.

"Come on, Captain." Karla grinned. "You're a girl of many talents, and I know for a fact lying isn't one of them."

"Okay," Tarin sighed, "we made out."

"I fucking called it." Karla smiled and clapped her hands together. "Thanks to you, I've got two months of extra wages to waste."

"Wait…" Tarin gaped. "You mean you were actually making _bets_ on me and Williams?"

"Well… yeah." Karla smiled in amusement. "I don't get why you're so surprised. This is the Marine Corps, where everybody is concerned with everybody else's business, especially if they can make a buck off it. It happens all the time."

"And you condone it?"

"Not like I can stop them." Karla shrugged. "Besides, as the commanding officer, I'm usually above that sort of stuff, unless somebody I don't particularly like gets involved. Poor Armbruster is not going to be happy to know he lost what he thought was a sure thing."

"I can't believe this." Tarin shook her head.

"You know what I can't believe? That people didn't even think you would hook up with Williams at all. Some of them even though that you swung the other way!"

"Please tell me you're kidding." Tarin buried her face in her palm in embarrassment.

"I can drive a Warthog and I can shoot a rifle, but I can't kid." Karla said with a serious tone, but eventually cracked a smile. "Stupid bets aside, what'd you do?"

"Like I said, we made out once… or twice."

"Did you…?"

"No!" Tarin's face reddened. "Can we change the subject, please?"

"I'm just messing with you." Karla smiled. "Anyways, better go pack your things. Full combat load."

"Something happening?"

"The Colonel won't say exactly what it is, but it's definitely something big." Karla said simply. "Get your company organized, and tell them we're going in light."

"I'll get right to it, Major." Tarin nodded.

**Edwards Air Force Base Firing Range**

Since the base was still under construction, the building of a firing range was still fairly low on the priority list. However, for those Marines who wanted to keep their marksmanship skills sharp, waste some time, or blow off some steam, the ramshackle, temporary range was good enough for them. The firing range was simply a patch of salt flat a few hundred meters in length with a large dirt mound at the end to catch stray bullets. At the other end, there were mats, foxholes, and a makeshift wooden rail to accommodate various firing stances, and motorized pop-up targets made up the majority of the "enemies" on range.

Sam scored another headshot on a supposed "enemy", and smiled as the target flipped over to signify it had taken a hit. So far, she had a hundred percent accuracy rating, and all she was doing was sighting her new rifle. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep the Earthshaker, or at least not in any practical sense. The ammunition it used as nonstandard and therefore difficult to get from official Marine channels. However, every cloud had its silver lining, and Sam's share was a brand new SRS99D-S2 AM sniper rifle. Karla had even made sure that the rifle was built so that if fit perfectly with Sam's size and build, resulting in a more lethal soldier and weapon. Sam saw the faint smoke trail of her next round spear into the next target, knocking the steel dummy over with a new dent in its "head".

"Well, you definitely haven't lost any of your sharp sight, that's for sure." Leo said as he watched Sam's performance through a scope. "That's eight for eight."

"I have to admit, it's a whole lot better than the old one." Sam smiled and ejected the magazine, making sure that there were no live rounds left in the weapon. "It's got a bit more kick to it, but other than that, I can put my faith in it."

"Glad to hear that you're so enthusiastic!" Paccone grinned as he stepped between the two Marines and hooked his arms around them. "Good to see morale is high, because we're moving out!"

"What? Already? I was under the impression what's left of the Covenant were running for the hills." Leo said curiously.

"Don't be silly!" Paccone slapped Leo on the back rather hard. "Marines didn't used to always bash in alien skulls. Back in the old days, they bashed in other people's skulls just as well!"

"So it's not Covvie related?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"No idea." Paccone shrugged. "I was just told to tell you to pack up and get ready to ship out. Our pickup is coming first thing tomorrow morning."

Sam and Leo just looked at each other blankly. Theories about what they could possibly be tasked to do spawned in their heads, but both Marines kept their thoughts to themselves.

"Now if you excuse me, I've got an 'appointment' with your sister." Paccone let go of Sam and Leo and made his way to the firing range exit. "Part of the daily duties I have to fill out as a peacetime soldier."

Sam could only shudder at the thought of Paccone ever being her brother in law. It was quite possibly the most awkward and embarrassing situation she could ever think of being in, other than getting a plasma grenade stuck to your face, but that was a whole different story for another time.

"I sometimes wonder what they actually do when they're alone together." Sam shook her head sadly.

"You actually sound… _mature_." Leo said in mock astonishment. "Can this possibly mean you're taking something seriously?"

"Shut up." Sam shoved Leo lightly in the shoulder. "It's really rude to make fun of people like that."

"Right." Leo helped Sam pack up her rifle and latched the case closed before saying, "Are you really against Sarge hooking up with your sister that much?"

"Words cannot even begin to describe it." Sam sighed. "Think about it. Do you want see Sarge hanging out in your own house on an every day basis?"

"Point." Leo shuddered.

**UNSC Frigate **_**Miller**_

**Currently holding station over the Atlantic Ocean**

**Two days later**

Captain Rogers tapped his finger impatiently on the armrest of his chair as the _Miller_ performed a deep penetrating sensor sweep of the Atlantic Ocean below. Scanning through ocean was often troublesome because of the sheer distance between the surface and seabed, as well as the presence of the huge amount of water in between. However, it wasn't the fact that sensor sweeping was a boring task that was irritating Rogers. It was the fact that he had his command of _Freedom_ taken away and was transferred to this frigate. Truth be told, Rogers was never officially in command of the _Freedom _and was only put into that position due to the desperation of war. Plus, it was a prototype ship that was never designed for frontline combat in mind, and the whole ship had been taken to a classified shipyard for further study and testing.

However, Rogers should've considered the fact that he was even given command of a working ship a blessing. After the battle over Earth, the vast majority of the UNSC fleet was decimated. The only working ships so far were the few that survived the initial battle, the ones scattered in the colonies that weren't recalled to Earth, and the many that were hastily salvaged, repaired, or recommissioned. _Miller_ was heavily damaged during the battle but managed to survive structurally intact. After a rigorous stay in an orbital dock, the _Miller_ was ready to serve the UNSC again.

Finally, one thing that Rogers considered a mixed blessing was that Joshua had been carried over from the _Freedom_ to the _Miller_ as well. The ONI spooks wanted to purge all of the original crew from the ship, including the AIs. Doubtless they wanted a handpicked crew of their choosing that would follow their orders.

"How is the scan coming along, Joshua?" Rogers sighed.

"The scan is only seventy percent complete." Joshua chimed. "Please be patient while the program is running. Would you like to play a game to pass the time?"

"That's not necessary." Rogers waved off the request and turned to the Colonel and ONI spook standing behind him. "So what are we looking for again?"

"An underwater facility." The spook replied simply. "We lost track of it during the war and we simply want to confirm whether it's still intact or not."

Rogers doubted that the spook was telling the whole truth, but he was in no position to ask questions. "Joshua, are the DSTVs prepped?"

"They're being fueled as we speak, Captain."

As part of the operation, the _Miller_ was also carrying two Deep Sea Transportation Vehicles. They were basically large submarines whose original purpose was to ferry workers to underwater mines or geothermal planets. One vehicle could carry up to twenty men and stay underwater for several days at depths of up to six hundred meters. These were the perfect vehicles to convey passengers to the underwater facility.

"Captain, the sensor sweep is complete, and I believe our scans found something." Joshua activated the holographic screen. "Our sensors have detected a structure covering several square miles, and it has all kinds of flat surfaces, straight edges, right angles, and other phenomena not commonly found in nature. I have a ninety nine percent certainty that whatever is down there is man made."

"Is that where the signal is originating from?" Ryan asked.

"We are well within the fifty mile margin of error. I am positive that this is where the signal is originating from."

"Alright." Rogers stood up. "Bring the ship down and land it in the water. Prep the DSTVs and the deployment hangar." He then turned to Colonel Mackenzie. "I trust that you can get your men in order, Colonel."

"Already on it."

**Hangar Deck**

Karla watched as forty Marines slowly piled into the two submarines sitting inside the hangar. Because of their limited logistics, the Marine force would have to be transported down to the underwater facility piecemeal. Williams and Tarin were taking the first platoon down to secure a landing zone for the rest of the reinforcement waves. Karla would follow on the second wave and reinforcements would slowly trickle down.

However, Karla had a very uneasy feeling, and it wasn't because of the gentle rocking of the waves hitting against the frigate. Everything about this mission had something that could go wrong. The submarines might suffer a mechanical failure and crash. They could run into some kind of defense system, or they could lose contact with the surface. Karla really didn't like the idea of being stranded hundreds of feet underwater all alone in an unknown environment. Karla took one more look down at the deck and managed to catch a glimpse of Sam and her squad boarding one of the subs. Karla quietly hoped that the submarines would get down safely, and exited hangar deck. Once the subs were loaded and sealed, the hangar would be flooded to allow the subs to exit.

**DSTV One**

Williams leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to not to think about the cramped space of the submarine or the hundreds of feet of water pressing down all over the sub. Tarin, however, didn't suffer from such phobias and kept an eye on the rest of the Marines inside the sub. Most of them were anxious for the ride to finish so that they could get out of the sub. It was no different than a tense Pelican ride, except at the first sign of structural failure, the sub and all of its occupants would instantly be crushed by the pressure of the ocean.

Tarin could now see why Williams was so nervous.

**DSTV Two**

"I'm not sure why you're brining your sniper rifle." Leo said, annoyed at how part of the rifle's bipod was stabbing into his side. "I don't think there's really enough space in an underwater facility to accommodate such a thing."

"You never know when you might need it." Sam said as she held the rifle close. "Besides, I just got this thing. No way I'm letting it out of my sight."

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, listen up!" Paccone yelled from his seat at the head of the sub. "We have no idea of what the condition of our LZ is, so I want you all on your toes! Weapons live and eyes open! If I catch any of you slacking, you'll the first out of the airlock!"

There was a cacophony of affirmations and laughter when Kumi glanced out of the viewport and gasped, "Holy hell!"

This prompted the rest of the Marines to try and get a look outside. What they saw was breathtaking.

Sam managed to turn around to look out of her viewport, and saw not just an underwater facility, but an underwater _city_. The massive steel structures jutting out of the sea bed reminded her of the mighty skyscrapers that dominated the skies at New Mombasa. However, building in open air was a relatively simple thing to do, but to have a city this size this deep underwater? It was something that didn't seem possible.

"What the hell is this place?" Leo gaped at the various colorful lights dotting the underwater city. "How could we have not known about something like this?"

"I think that's why we're here." Sam said, still marveling at the sheer novelty of an underwater city.

The submarine eventually reached the city itself and started to maneuver between the buildings, like a maze of artificial canyons. Sam could see signs, advertisements, and even the interiors of some of the buildings. She thought she could see movement in some of the windows and the glass tubes connecting individual buildings, but the sub was either too far or the view was too distorted for her to confirm. This continued for a few minutes before the submarine began to slow down.

"Alright." The helmsman's voice crackled over the intercom. "We've reached a suitable landing zone. We're extending the docking collar. Please refrain from opening the hatch until the light turns green. I don't want some idiot opening it prematurely and flooding the whole sub."

There was a dull thud as the docking collar made contact with the building they were stationed against. There was a faint hiss as the air pressure equalized and the hatch light turned green.

"All right, see you on the other side." Paccone said as he unsealed the hatch and exited the submarine.

What awaited him and the rest of the Marines on the other side would exceed their wildest imaginations… and fears.


	2. Welcome to Rapture

"_The end is extremely fucking nigh!"_

_-Anonymous_

Chapter 2: Welcome to Rapture

**Paradise Gate Arrival Terminal**

**Rapture**

It was a bit of an understatement to say that expectations weren't exactly met when the Marines first got a glimpse of the interior of the city. In contrast to the beautiful vista they had seen earlier, the interior of the city, or at least the section they were in looked completely run down and dilapidated, as if the area had been neglected for a few years. Broken suitcases, luggage, and cargo crates were scattered around along with their contents, and scattered all over the floor were what appeared to be protest signs. The signs said all kinds of inflammatory thing such as "Ryan doesn't control us!" or "Atlas is watching!" However, the one thing that caught everybody's attention was the massive banner draped from the ceiling, proclaiming "Welcome to Rapture!" in large bold letters, doubtless referring to the name of the underwater city they were in.

"Looks like this place wasn't doing so well." Leo said as he toed one of the protest signs. "Don't think anybody's been here for years."

"Huh, that's interesting." Sam craned her head upwards and pointed at a large information board that was hanging over from the ceiling, similar to the kind of boards that displayed arrival/departure information in most transportation terminals. "It only has arrival times posted. No departures whatsoever."

"I suppose it would be tough to keep this place secret if they let people out." Kumi shrugged.

"All right, all right, quit the chatter." Tarin marched forward and started barking out orders. "Paccone, I want you to take a fireteam and cover the main approach. Mendez, you and your men will secure this room, and Williams, you're with me. We're going to see if we can get up to the second floor. The rest of you guard the docking tube for the other waves."

There was a flurry of acknowledgements and the Marines split up to fulfill their separate tasks. Paccone grabbed Sam, Leo, and Kumi and led them toward the front end of the terminal.

"Quit lagging behind, you lazy bums. Let's get going!"

"Yeah, yeah. Duty calls." Kumi grumbled.

Their journey eventually led them to a forward lobby area that had a single watertight door leading out. Like the terminal, the lobby was a drab and unkept place, with empty potato chip bags, overturned furniture, and more protest signs. Paccone walked near the door and it automatically slid open to reveal a long glass tunnel that led to the adjacent building.

"What do you suppose is on the other side?" Kumi asked as she peered down to the other end of the tunnel.

"No idea." Paccone paused. "Sam, Leo, you two move ahead and check out the far end of the tunnel. Me and Kumi will stay back here and cover you."

"Yes sir." Sam patted Leo on the back and they both cautiously walked down the tunnel. Sam took the chance to look upward, and could see the surrounding buildings tower above her. However, something caught her eye, piquing her curiosity. "That's odd…"

**UNSC **_**Miller**_

Rogers frowned as he glanced at the communications displays. Due to the distance the facility was from the surface and remoteness of their current location, wireless communication was problematic at best. To get into range for any semblance of a signal, the _Miller_ literally had to be floating in the water with its belly radio antenna extended down as far as it could go. Thankfully, the DSTVs recorded the entire journey, and the moment they returned, all of the data was uploaded and analyzed in the ship's computers.

"Interesting. He didn't just build a facility, but a whole _city_." Hubbard mused, impressed at the scale of the construction. "If I'm right, Ryan probably designed it so that the city would be completely self sufficient to minimize contact with the surface."

"Yes, but the initial reports so far indicate that nobody has been found yet. As far as we know, the city is devoid of life." Joshua explained. "Most peculiar, given a city of this size."

"Something definitely stinks about this." Mackenzie nodded in agreement. "I'll tell my men to hold position until we can get more reinforcements down there. No telling what's down there."

"I'm afraid we might have a problem." Joshua's hologram suddenly morphed into a red checker piece to signal alarm. "The ship's sensors are indicating that a major storm system in incoming on our position from the northeast."

The bridge crew glanced out of the bridge windows, and they could indeed see a massive black wall of clouds, with tiny little flashes from within caused by the lightning strikes. As the seconds passed, the wall began to grow in size, casting a shadow over the ocean that slowly began to engulf the entire horizon.

"What the hell? We haven't seen any signs of a storm when we first came here." Rogers blanched.

"This is just conjecture, but this may be one of those portal storms people have been talking about." Joshua's game board switched to a rapidly accelerated game of tic tac toe. "It does appear to be consistent with previous weather phenomena."

Nobody was quite sure why, but ever since the Covenant had invaded Earth, there had been a number of strange weather anomalies that had plagued the planet shortly after the Covenant left Earth. There were strange, unexplainable weather patterns, such as snowstorms in the Sahara, hurricanes in the English Channel, massive heat waves all over North America, and more. Many theorized that the phenomena had something to do with the massive portal that had been opened over the remains of New Mombasa, as it caused massive atmospheric disturbances when it initially opened. As a result, these anomalies were soon dubbed "portal storms", and were often known for their tendency to suddenly appear out of nowhere with unexpected ferocity. While they were not as nearly as common as they were when the war ended, portal storms remained an ever present danger.

"How bad is it?" Rogers asked.

"Severe. There will be no way for us to keep the _Miller_ in the water. I've correlated the data from our sensors with the surrounding weather tracking stations, and I can only calculate one conclusion. We must get the ship into the air and leave the affected areas immediately."

"There's no way we can do that!" Mackenzie yelled. "I've still got people down there! Are you saying that we just abandon them?"

"While it certainly is an unfortunate measure, it will only be a temporary one." Joshua shot back. "The Marines have ample supplies and equipment to survive the duration of the storm."

"How long then?" Ryan asked.

"Unknown. It may be several hours or several days. The duration of such storms is often unpredictable."

"It looks like we have no choice then." Rogers sighed. "What's the condition of the DSTVs?"

"DSTV One has successfully docked and offloaded its passengers. However, the vehicle is suffering from mechanical problems and it is likely we will have to leave it there. Because DSTV One cannot undock, DSTV Two has moved to offload its passengers at an alternate landing zone."

"Alright. Tell DSTV Two to return ASAP once it offloads. Tell DSTV One that if they can't fix their mechanical problem within the next half hour, they're staying behind with the Marines."

"Affirmative."

"I don't like this one bit." Mackenzie frowned. "We've barely got a fraction of the number of Marines we intended to land in that facility, and we're leaving them on their own for who knows how long."

"There's nothing we can do about it, Colonel." Ryan shook his head. "The storm is already on us."

Ryan pointed to the bridge viewport, which was already being pelted with raindrops the size of people's thumbs. Lightning temporarily blinded the bridge crew, and waves were already beginning to smack into the ship, make it rock back and forth. Though designed for the rigors of space, the _Miller_ was never intended to be a seaworthy vessel and nobody knew how it would handle a storm of such ferocity dead in the water.

"DSTV Two has docked, Captain." Joshua announced over the roar of the thunder and waves.

"Good. Power up the reactors and fire up the engines. Helmsman, I want you to get us out of here, full speed."

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Leaving those Marines down there?" Ryan asked.

"No, it's not good at all." Rogers sighed. "But we really have no choice."

**Paradise Gate Freight Dock**

Karla frowned as she glanced around the dock. Since the passenger terminal entrance was blocked by the broken down DSTV, Karla and her unit was forced to go down several levels to this apparent freight dock. It was clear that the visitors were never meant to see the operations down here, as there was no obvious route to reach the passenger terminal.

Not to mention, she had received a radio message from the _Miller_ that they were pulling support for the time being due to an oncoming storm. It didn't take a military genius to know that having a small number of Marines stranded in an unfamiliar environment was a very bad situation. She sighed, and knew that the best course of action would be to take the few Marines she had and try to link up with the rest of the boarding party.

"Mants, Lang, round up your squads. We're moving out." Karla pointed to the dock exit. "Let's try to find a way up."

"Wait." Sergeant Mants stopped and cocked his head curiously. "Do you hear something?"

"What?" Karla strained her ears, but couldn't hear anything besides some random clanking in the background which she just assumed was machinery. "It's nothing."

"What is this?" A hoarse, gravelly voice croaked from the darkness. "Is it somebody new?"

The Marines instantly reacted, bringing up their rifles in firing position, but still weren't fast enough. A dark blur dropped down from the ceiling and disappeared, leaving behind two wounded Marines.

"Damnit! Fire!" Karla yelled. As the Marines around began opening fire, she bent down to see the downed Marines with serious lacerations, as if they were cut by some kind of sharp weapon.

"Jesus! There's more of them!" Mants yelled as he turned around and fired his assault rifle again. True to his word, three more dark blurs shot past. Two of the blurs were stitched by automatic fire and flopped over, revealing themselves to be vaguely humanoid. The third blur sprinted and slashed Mants' throat out with a rusty knife.

It was at this time Karla realized that they were in serious shit. She quickly sprayed biofoam on the Marines' wounds and began contributing her weapon to the cacophony of weapons fire. However, the things were fast and agile, running around and using the surrounding piping and obstacles to avoid the weapon fire. Almost at the least second, Karla saw two of the things closing in on her and realized that they at least looked like normal people. They wore tattered civilian clothing and wore makeshift masks over their faces. From the visible parts of their bodies, Karla could see that they were heavily scarred either from injury or self-mutilation. However, she didn't have much time to ponder on that possibility. She pointed her rifle at the closest assailant. The assailant saw the weapon and bent down, preparing to jump and dodge, but Karla had anticipated the move and had her aimed her rifle slightly higher. When the man jumped, he took two three round bursts to the face and chest. His lifeless body hit the ground like an empty sack. The second assailant then closed in, laughing maniacally and brandishing a pair of sharpened fisherman hooks. Karla turned to face her attacker but the assailant swung one of her hooks and knocked the assault rifle out of Karla's hands. In desperation, Karla grabbed her plasma sword and swung it outwards, cutting through the assailant from her right hip to her left shoulder. The two pieces fell to the ground with a meaty smack. With the immediate threat over, Karla surveyed the damage. Only half of the original twenty Marines, including her, were still standing. The bodies of a dozen of the unknown assailants were scattered around, but there were still easily at least a dozen more of them leaping and running around. Karla picked up her rifle when she realized a third assailant was closing in on her. The man had a running start and lunged at her. Karla emptied the rest of her clip into the man, blowing the front of his face off. However, the body was still being carried by the momentum of his lunge and it slammed into Karla's chest. She tumbled over and onto a rusted maintenance hatch, which shattered under the weight, causing Karla and her lifeless companion to fall through it. The last thing Karla saw before falling through the hatch was the sight of multiple muzzle flashes from assault rifles and more moving shadows before the back of her head struck a random pipe and everything went black.

**Passenger Terminal**

From her vantage point on the second floor, Tarin could see all of the activities going on in the terminal below. She had received a radio message that _Miller_ was temporarily pulling support due to bad weather, which was of course, not a good thing. To make things worse, ever since she had confirmed she had landed, Karla had not made radio contact again. Knowing how strict the Major was about these things, Tarin was more than slightly worried.

"Yeah, I'm pretty nervous about it, too." Williams said, echoing Tarin's fears. "I guess we just have to have faith that the Major's okay."

"I guess so." Tarin agreed. "We can't let it get in the way of our mission anyways."

"Hold it!" One of the Marines raised his rifle and yelled.

"What's going on?" Tarin asked through the radio.

"We've caught sight of an unknown. Looks like somebody who lives here, but we're not sure."

"Where is he?"

"North side."

Tarin turned her head to see a rather ragged looking man hefting a large backpack. He was surrounded by a knot of six Marines with weapons ready and aimed. Strangely enough, the man didn't seem to be phased at the number of weapons pointed at him, but seemed to be focused on the docked DSTV.

"You there! Hold it!" Corporal Harris barked as he kept his weapon trained on the intruder. "What's your purpose?"

"Is that… an exit?" The man asked, completely ignoring Harris.

Harris was about to step forward when the man suddenly threw a small object at his feet. There was a bright flash and the Marines recoiled. By the time they recovered, the man was already sprinting towards the DSTV.

"Stop him!" Tarin yelled down at the Marines below. Harris didn't hesitate and fired two rifle bursts that punched into the intruder's kneecaps. The man toppled to the ground right inside the docking tube and his backpack ripped open to reveal an entire cache of the ramshackle explosives.

"Oh shit." Tarin cursed when she realized the danger.

"No… I don't wanna stay here any longer…" The man whimpered before picking up another of the explosives in his hand.

Suddenly, the man exploded in a huge ball of fire, shattering the docking collar and the DSTV connected to it. With nothing to hold back the ocean outside, a huge torrent of water began to pour through the hole, sending the Marines on the first floor scattering for shelter. Warning sirens blared as automated sensors detected the sudden change in water level. Emergency flood control procedures quickly took effect and all the watertight doors around the terminal were sealed shut. Before they realized it, Sam and Leo were locked in the tunnel and out of the passenger terminal.

"What the hell?!" Leo cried as the door slammed shut behind him. He only caught a brief glimpse of Paccone and Kumi's surprised faces before his view was obstructed by a wall of steel.

"Uhhhh, Leo, I think the door is the least of our worries…" Sam said, still looking up.

"Are you serious?! We just got cut off from the rest of the unit!" Leo said in a panic.

"Look!" Sam grabbed Leo's shoulder to get his attention and pointed up. The top of one of the surrounding buildings had suddenly and inexplicably imploded, and now debris was raining down onto the ocean floor below. Unfortunately, the tunnel was one of the things between the debris and the ocean bottom. A chunk of twisted steel and concrete crashed through a tunnel several levels above, snapping the structure like a toothpick and adding more debris to the rain.

"Shit!" Leo cursed and realized that the door at the other end of the tunnel was still open. The pressure on that side was not compromised. "Let's go!"

Sam and Leo sprinted down the hallway toward the open door. Already, they could hear the smaller pieces of debris slamming against and bouncing off the roof of the tunnel. Some of the larger pieces had begun to cause visible damage, and Leo noticed several large cracks forming across the glass tunnel like spider webs. Water began dripping from several of the larger cracks and Leo knew that it was only a matter of time before the structural integrity of the tunnel failed. Leo increased his pace, already drenched by the water leaking in. He saw Sam turn around, her eyes widening in shock. She tried to yell something to him, but Leo never heard what exactly she was saying. Her voice was drowned out as a massive chunk of titanium A crashed through the tunnel behind them. A wall of water slammed into both Marines and sent them shooting through the other end of the tunnel. In response, the watertight door began to shut to keep the water out. Fortunately for them, Sam and Leo were pushed under the door before it could fully close. However, Leo could feel the side of his head strike the bottom of the closing door, dazing him. He blacked out for what seemed like a second, but when he finally regained his senses, he realized that he was in a completely different room, sprawled next to another sealed door. Coughing out the water in his throat, Leo scanned the area and panicked when he realized Sam wasn't there.

"Sam!?"

Meanwhile, back in the passenger terminal, the Marines had very different issues to worry about. With the doors sealed, the building was quickly filling with water and there was no way out. Paccone and Kumi made their way back into the terminal from the lobby, intending to get help only to find that they were probably in worse shape than Sam and Leo.

"What the hell's going on?!" Paccone yelled.

"What do you think?!" Tarin said as she waded towards him. "The place is flooding! Is the front area secure?"

"No way out of there!" Paccone shook his head. "The door's sealed with two of my people on the other side."

"I didn't want to do this…" Tarin shook her head. "Harris! Blow that door!"

There was a secondary door that led out of the terminal. Like the main entrance, the door automatically sealed to keep the water out. However, some hastily prepared C7 charges solved that problem. The watertight door blew apart like paper, opening the path for escape. The Marines began piling through the breach in order to escape the quickly flooding terminal. Tarin lagged behind, making sure that all of the Marines made it through.

"Come on!" Williams yelled, motioning for Tarin to come. "Everybody's through!"

Tarin made her way to the door, but hesitated. She turned around and saw nothing but the rising water, which was strange, because she had sworn she had heard something moving behind her. Suddenly, Tarin's survival instinct screamed in her head and she ducked just as a rusty pipe swung over her head. She immediately dropped to the ground, rolled, turned, and put a three round burst straight into her assailant's chest. The man gasped in surprise, but Tarin couldn't see his expression because it was hidden behind a cheap plastic Halloween mask of a cat. However, she didn't exactly have much time to ponder the oddness of the whole spectacle. A warning shout from Williams and two distinct sets of splashes behind her told her that more hostiles were on the way. She turned to see two more similarly ragged and oddly dressed men wielding similarly makeshift weaponry. A burst from her and Williams promptly put both men down.

"Come on! We've got to go!" Williams grabbed Tarin's arm. The water was now already up to chest level and climbing. At this rate, both Marines would be floating rather than walking.

"Trouble!" Tarin pointed to the door. Another knot of hostiles had appeared at the door, blocking the way. There was no time to fight them.

"This way!" Wiliams pointed off to the side. There, in dull red letters was a sign labeled EMERGENCY ACCESS. Under it was a watertight with a manual override, and it was still open. That was probably how the hostiles managed to get in the first place. Tarin and Williams waded to the door, and together, managed to pull it closed and seal it before more water could enter.

"Lovely place this is." Tarin gasped as the water drained out of the emergency corridor. "Where do we go from here?"

"That way, I suppose." Williams pointed down the dark corridor before them. "Just hope whatever's down there is nicer than what we've seen so far."

**Olympus Heights**

"Damnit." Paccone cursed as he saw how disorganized and sloppy the Marines around him were acting. "Who the hell is in charge here?!"

The Marines looked around blankly until one of them bluntly replied, "You are, sir."

"What?" Paccone scanned the knot of Marines and noticed that both Tarin and Williams were missing. With the two highest ranking officers out of the picture, that basically made him the de facto leader. "Alright, I want you to form up into four squads of nine! Fultze, you have squad one, Maude, you have squad two, Rilke, you have squad three, and Mitchell, you have squad four! Move in and stay close! We're in unknown territory with confirmed hostiles!"

"What's our priority, sir?" Fultze asked.

"We find somewhere defensible and dig in until we can reestablish contact with the _Miller_." Paccone scanned the surrounding cityscape when a certain building caught his eye. It was a large apartment block-like building that was at least four stories tall and had a single entrance. There was a lot of wear and battle damage, but with some touching up and some good old fashioned Marine-style engineering, it might as well have been a fortress. Paccone couldn't tell the name of the building, but he did manage to make out from the faded letters that it was some sort of charity center. However, it didn't take a genius to figure that the building was already occupied. He checked his motion scanner and could see numerous unidentified signals. "Weapons live, people. We don't know the condition or allegiance of the people inside, but do not hesitate to use lethal force if you think it's necessary."

Kumi and the other Marines around him nodded grimly. They could tell that there was something inherently _wrong_ with the city. Everything was scarred by damage, be it from battle or neglect. There were more than a few dead bodies lying around and the entire area had the all too familiar feel of an abandoned war zone. A normal, well functioning city this was not.

Paccone took position in front of the door in breaching position. Since Kumi had the shotgun, she was naturally the door opener. She pumped her shotgun once and aimed right above the doorknob where the locks should have been.

"On my mark." Paccone said. He waited for Kumi to nod in response. "Alright, one… two… THREE!"

Kumi fired two successive shots into the door, blasting the locks out. Paccone swiftly kicked the doors open, rifle raised and ready to face whatever was on the other side.

**Utility Corridor 47A**

Karla blinked and groaned in pain as she slowly regained consciousness. It took her several seconds to remember what had happened. She looked down and noticed she was lying on top of the dead body of the hostile that had shoved her down here. Thankfully, the body hit the ground first and partly cushioned Karla's fall, which made her a little grateful, since it looked as if she had fallen quite a long way.

"Well, it's not often that we get visitors down here." An unfamiliar voice rang from the darkness. Instinctively, Karla grabbed her rifle and aimed it at the source of the voice. "Whoa, lass, I'm not a Splicer!"

"What?" Karla was genuinely confused, and she must have shown it, because the stranger quickly caught on.

"Well, well. I had my suspicions, and I found that they were true. You really _are_ an outsider." An old, rather grizzled man emerged from the darkness. He was wearing an extremely faded and slightly torn uniform, obviously some kind of employee or maintenance worker.

"Who are you and where the hell am I?" Karla said, not bothering to lower her rifle.

The man gave a hoarse, throaty laugh, as if he had not done it in years and was out of practice. "My, I thought that silly propaganda video they made would still be playing in the terminal for new arrivals. Welcome to Rapture, lass, the last paradise in the galaxy."


	3. Backdoors

"_I'm going to tell you one last time, Andrew, if you're going to build a utopia under the sea, you've got to consider the dirty, gritty backlot that keeps the amusement park running. If Rapture is going to be as big as you say, it's going to need an enormous and staggeringly complex maintenance system, and it has to go everywhere, and I mean __**everywhere**__. I know there are some areas of the city that will make you feel uncomfortable having maintenance access, but think of it this way. If a pipe in one of your labs blows and we can't reach it, that's millions down the drain. I know you're in charge of this place Andrew, but I'm the poor bastard that has to build it."_

_-Bill McDonagh_

Chapter 3: Backdoors

**Maintenance Tunnel 67E**

"So who are you?" Karla asked as she followed the stranger through the dark labyrinth of tunnels, pipes, and conduits. Though the man apparently had good intentions, Karla would like to at least know who he was.

"The name's Bill McDonagh." The man replied simply. "I'm the general contractor for the city of Rapture, though that really doesn't matter much now."

"Yeah, you keep throwing the word 'Rapture' around, but you seem to forget that I have no idea what that is." Karla said. She was exasperated and still very dizzy from the blow to her head.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." McDonagh took a peek around a corner, and satisfied that the path was safe, continued onward. "I keep forgetting that you don't know a goddamn thing about this place. It's not often we get visitors down here. I'd love to explain everything to you, but not out here."

"I'm sure."

McDonagh moved swiftly through the tunnels. Karla was already completely lost trying to figure out whether there was any form of reason or pattern to these tunnels. Fortunately, McDonagh seemed to be perfectly aware of how to navigate the dark maze. After a few more minutes of suspenseful wandering, they finally reached a heavy, secured door. McDonagh tapped a few keys in a nearby keypad and the door slid open. He rushed in and Karla quickly followed him in before the door slammed shut. The room it was protecting was a stark, utilitarian room that was stocked with various supplies. There were crates of food, water, and even a small rack of weapons with accompanying ammunition stored in the room.

"Well, it's not much, but it's a good place to hunker down, and the doors are strong enough to keep the Splicers out." McDonagh sighed.

"Again, more terms I don't understand." Karla set down her rifle. She suddenly felt extremely tired.

"Right, right, I promised I'd explain everything." McDonagh scratched his head and sat down on an ammo crate. "You might want to sit down too, Major. It's a long story."

"I'm listening." Karla replied.

"Right." McDonagh cleared his throat. "Back in the day, before there was Rapture, there was Andrew Ryan. After some… 'setbacks'… he decided to forsake the world as he saw it. He was tired of how others would meddle with his business and steal or profit off of his own work. He grew sick of it and gathered up as many like-minded followers as he could and set to work building Rapture."

"Were you one of those 'like-minded followers'?" Karla asked curiously.

"In a way." McDonagh shrugged. "By that time, I was hired on as Ryan's personal general contractor, and I was one of his best, and few, friends. When he asked me to help him build something _magnificent_, how could I refuse? Anyway, the first few years were the toughest. Setting up the initial infrastructure was a pain in the arse, and it was quite a while before we became self sufficient. After we got things up and running, we had a good setup. People were flowing into the city, everything was running at peak efficiency, and everybody was happy, that is, until we found ADAM."

"ADAM?" Karla raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "What's that?"

"I'm no scientist, so I'm not sure about the specifics." McDonagh sighed, his voice tinged with bitterness. "I never used the stuff myself, but I know that it could…change people, something about their DNA. They could alter their appearance, or gain incredible powers normal humans could never dream of. It basically allowed them to do just about _anything_."

Karla nodded. She could see where this was going. Take a revolutionary new technology and put it into the hands of the people, and there was a huge chance things could break down into utter chaos and anarchy. "I take it things didn't go so well."

"No, they didn't." McDonagh shook his head. "The discovery couldn't have come at a worse time. You see, not all of the people who came into Rapture were perfect. There was one individual, Frank Fontaine, who was a born criminal. He came into Rapture and started setting up a black market, smuggling good from the outside world in. Living in an underwater city can sometimes eat away at your sanity, and the prospect of having one little piece of the outside world was tempting to most people. Fontaine made a killing off of his 'business' and started using his money and power to gain control of Rapture. Of course, Ryan, being the man he is, wasn't happy about it, and so he took steps to eliminate Fonatine. The introduction of ADAM just made sure that both sides had superpowered thugs to do their bidding."

"Let me guess, and things just got worse."

"Oh, much more than that. Both sides started using more and more unconventional tactics. Kidnappings, assassinations, torture, you name it. Hundreds died during the conflict, and once the smoke cleared, Ryan stood victorious and Fontaine was dead." McDonagh drooped sadly, as if he were recalling something that hurt him deeply. "You'd think things would go back to normal, but they didn't. You see, Ryan tasted power, and he wasn't keen to let it go. He kept all of his 'reforms' to control the populace, and nationalized all of Fontaine's holdings and added them to his own. People didn't like that, and they began to rebel. Then, a man by the name of Atlas rose up and challenge Ryan's despotism. Everything came to a head on New Year's Eve of 2551. Nobody knows who fired first, but once the clock struck midnight, there was a massive surprise offensive and enveloped every part of the city. After that day, the war grew more and more brutal. Today, out of a population of nearly half a million, there are barely a few thousand survivors, the vast majority of them Splicers."

"What about Ryan?"

"After the numerous assassination attempts, Ryan eventually just sealed himself up in his office. He's got a control interface set up in there so he can basically control most of the city remotely. I've tried breaking in, but I should know the quality of his security, since I built it myself. It's almost impregnable."

"Wait," Karla didn't think something was right, "why would you try to break into his office? Aren't you two friends?"

"_Were_." McDonagh said flatly. "There's two things I hold dear to my heart, Andrew Ryan and Rapture. If I have to sacrifice one to save the other then so be it. Ryan destroyed the city through his own foolish actions and it can never be revived as long as he remains alive."

It didn't take a genius to see how much of a toll being stuck down here took on McDonagh. Karla could clearly see that the man had gone through a lot, since he was considering killing his own best friend. It made her wonder what the rest of the city was like.

"So, what are these Splicers?" She asked.

"The things that attacked you." McDonagh replied simply. "They used to be people, but during the war, they were forced to take more and more ADAM to survive. The ADAM abuse eventually took a toll on their bodies and minds, and they're now nothing more than mindless, insane thugs that would kill you for the hell of it."

"Are any of them armed?" Karla got up and loaded her rifle. She then saw there was a crate of ammunition. It was originally meant for an older version of the MA5B, but it pretty much used the same 7.62mm bullets so it wasn't much trouble restocking. Even the magazines from the older model could slide in perfectly with the newer MA5B. "God bless standardized parts."

"Don't tell me you're considering going out there!" McDonagh paled. "You wouldn't survive two seconds!"

"You've obviously never seen the crap I've been through on the surface." Karla growled. "Now can you please answer my question?"

"Well, some of them, yes." McDonagh nodded. "All sorts of things; guns, pipes, knives, and of course plasmids, powers granted by their ADAM use."

"Anything I should look out for?"

"It's mostly elemental stuff, like shooting fire and electricity and things like that. You'll also have to watch out for the city's automated security systems. Unless they're programmed to recognize you, they'll pretty much shoot you on sight."

"I'll keep that in mind." Karla walked up to the door. "Is there a way to the city?"

"I'll show you." McDonagh got up, making sure to bring a shotgun with him as well. "I can take you to the surface streets, but that's the farthest I can bring you. You're on your own after that."

"I can take care of myself, thanks." Karla nodded.

"Right then, let's go." McDonagh opened the door and cautiously moved off into the dark tunnels with Karla in tow.

**Saint Fontaine's Home for the Underprivileged**

The moment Paccone kicked the door down, he saw something light up and spin in his direction. Without hesitation, he fired his assault rifle on full auto, blowing the odd contraption in front of him to pieces. There were inhuman shrieks and growls and four hostiles appeared from the sides of the room, bearing various makeshift weapons. They proved to be no match for heavily armed Marines though, and three of them were quickly cut down. The fourth managed to elude the hail of automatic fire. Paccone raised his rifle when he noticed something odd. The hostile turned and held his arm out, and like magic, a huge ball of fire spat out from his hand toward Paccone. Paccone cursed and raised his arms to protect himself. The ball of fire struck his arms, searing his armor and singing some of his hair, but otherwise dealing minimal damage. Kumi quickly responded with a shotgun burst straight into the hostile's chest.

"Tango down!" Kumi said, confirming the hostile was dead.

"What the hell was that?!" One of the Marines yelled in surprise. "He just shot fire out of his hand!"

"I'd like to know myself." Paccone growled as he patted his armor to put some lingering flames. "I want the fireteams to fan out and secure the whole building! Clear every room!"

"Sir!" The Marines scattered into their respective groups and took separated directions, kicking down doors and brutally eliminating anything that even moved wrong.

Meanwhile, Paccone knelt down and inspected the contraption he had initially shot. It looked like some sort of automatic turret made by MacGyver or something. It was basically an assault rifle strapped to a desk chair. Motors attached to the rifle and chair allowed the thing to swivel aim the weapon, and a camera lens and small computer provided target data and recognition. It was both elegantly engineered and brutally simple.

"Pretty nifty toy they got here." Paccone toed the destroyed machine. "If we run into another one, let's try to take it intact so the engineers can get a look at it."

"Well, the teams have already run into more of those turrets." Kumi listened in on her radio. "And they're reporting more weird powers. People shooting all kinds of crap like fire, electricity, ice, and I've got one corporal who swears that one tango was throwing things around with his _mind_."

"Right." Paccone sighed. "Once we've cleared the building, set up an aid station and get the bodies and casualties gathered up there. Once we get everybody patched up, and I want the Marine with the best medical training here to get a look at those tangos."

There was a dull _thud_ as a grenade went off in one of the upper level rooms. Gunfire and inhuman shrieks perforated the entire building as the Marines cleared every floor room by room with brutal efficiency. None of the hostiles in the rooms put up much of a fight, as they were mostly malnourished psychopaths armed with rusty pipes and wrenches, and they were easy targets for the well trained Marines and their superior firepower. It wasn't long before they finally reached the top floor of the building, five stories up that they met their first real obstacle.

"What's the holdup soldier?" Paccone grunted as he shoved his way the front of the Marine formation.

"Armored door, sir." One of the Marines pointed. "Our normal breaching stuff can't get through it."

"I see." Paccone leaned forward and inspected the door. Unlike the other doors, this one was made out of reinforced titanium A and was electronically sealed. "Let's get some demo charges on this door."

A few seconds of preparation and a trigger pull later, the reinforced door was reduced to metal slag, paving the way open for the Marines to enter the room it was guarding. Inside, it looked like a small war room. There tables of maps of various locations, homemade radios buzzing on quiet frequencies, and even a large, stocked weapons locker on the far side of the room.

"So… what was this place again, exactly?" Kumi scratched her head curiously.

"I'd like to know that as well." Paccone shook his head. Things were making less and less sense.

**Gateway District**

"Damnit!" Leo cursed when he looked around himself. How the hell could he have lost track of Sam? He realized that he wasn't thinking clearly and took a deep breath. First things first, he had to at least reestablish contact with any friendly forces. He keyed the radio, but only received static. There was some kind of interference that was disrupting long range communications.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" The radio squawked, much to Leo's surprise. "If you can hear me, please respond!"

"Who is this?" Leo asked curiously. He was wondering why he was so surprised to hear another human voice.

"So you _can_ hear me! Seems like Ryan hasn't been able to block _all_ of the frequencies!" The mystery voice said happily. "The name's Atlas, and it looks like we're going to be getting to know each other."

"What makes you so sure about that?" Leo asked suspiciously. He had absolutely no way of knowing this man's intentions.

"Because neither of us has any other choice." Atlas replied. "I've been tracking you ever since you ended up in this section of the city, and we both stand to gain from helping each other."

"Go on." Though Atlas sounded sincere, Leo still wasn't fully convinced.

"Okay, I know that you're separated from your partner and you want to reunite with her. I can help you with that. I'm in a security bunker and I have nominal access and control of the systems in this section of the city."

"I suppose there's a catch to this."

"The catch is that I'm stuck in this bunker, so I can't help you directly. Plus, I tried to get my family here with me, but they couldn't make it. They're trapped in the city out there, and right now, you're the best chance of me getting them back."

"So basically, you help me find Sam, and I help you get your family back."

"To put it bluntly, yes."

Leo thought about the proposition for a second, and quickly realized that Atlas was right. They both needed each other. "Okay, I'm in. What do I need to do?"

"Well, first things first, we should try to find your friend. I can help you out there…"

"The name's Leo."

"Leo. It'll take me some time the search the feeds, but I'm sure I can find her. Right now, let's get you somewhere safe. Keep going down the street and go into the blue building on your right."

"Okay." Leo carefully made his way down the street, keeping a wary eye out for potential threats. "So, you mind telling me what's going here?"

"Right, you're an outsider. We don't have much time, but I'll give you the summary. We build this city, Rapture, in an attempt to achieve utopia. Unfortunately, the idea didn't really pan out as we hoped. War broke out, and that's what caused the city to end up in the state it is in now."

"Okay, anything else I need to know?" Leo whipped around, almost swearing he had seen something move on his right.

"Just watch out for the Splicers. They used to be normal people until they got hopped up on ADAM. They'll attack on you on sight, so don't be afraid to use lethal force."

"ADAM?" Leo stopped for a second.

"I'll explain later, but would you kindly enter the building now?"

"Okay, okay." Now Leo could definitely hear something out there. He turned around just in time to see a Splicer rushing towards him, her cracked, dry lips and dull grey eyes glinting in the dim light. Leo prepared to fire, but was beaten to the punch when a trio of tiny drone-like constructs and tore the Splicer to shreds with their belly mounted automatic weapons.

"Don't worry. This building is one of the safehouses I've set up. It's protected by the city's automated security systems." Atlas explained. "You'll be safe here until I can figure out where your friend is. Shouldn't take long."

"I hope not." Leo sighed as he entered the building. The door automatically opened to let him inside, and just as quickly shut to keep out intruders. Inside, Leo noticed a rather modest stockpile of supplies such as food, water, and ammunition. He grabbed some spare clips and a few rations and stuffed them in a conveniently places satchel. There was no telling how long he'd be stuck out here.

"I see you've already helped yourself with the supplies. Good, because you're going to need them." Atlas said, breaking the silence. "I'm tracking you friend right now, and I think I've got a lock on her position. I think she's in… oh dear lord…"

Leo was alarmed at the sudden change in Atlas' tone, as if he were gravely afraid of something. "What's wrong?"

"We've got to get you moving, _now_." Atlas said urgently. "We don't have much time!"

**Emergency Access Corridor 3**

Tarin and Williams crept carefully down the dimly lit corridor. It was a bit difficult to see through the red lights, but they had managed to make out the writing on the wall as directions to certain areas of the city. So far, most of the doors, they had come across were sealed tight. Neither Marine wanted to risk blowing the doors because they were unsure of the conditions of the environment on the other side.

"How long do you think these tunnels go?" Williams sighed as they passed yet another sealed door.

"No idea." Tarin said. "But I have a feeling that these tunnels snake throughout the whole city. It's just a matter a finding a door that isn't locked."

The moment she said those words, one of the doors suddenly hissed as its magnetic and electronic seals disengaged. Tarin and Williams, both startled, readied their rifles, but all they saw was more empty corridor.

"Doesn't this strike you as a little _too_ convenient?" Williams sighed in relief.

"Yeah." Tarin glanced at the sign above the door. "But it's not as if we have much other choice."

With that, Tarin stepped through the door and Williams close behind. Before going in, Williams took a quick look at the sign Tarin had just seen, which read TO: LAMBDA COMPLEX.

"It doesn't sound like a very inviting place." Williams pointed out.

"Like I said, we don't have much choice." Tarin said. "Let's just try and find a way out of here."

"Alright, alright."

It wasn't long before they both approached a yet another door. Again, it inexplicably and automatically opened as they approached. The moment Tarin and Williams stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind them, startling Williams. While Williams briefly panicked and tried to reopen the door, Tarin observed that they were in a room that somewhat resembled a ship's airlock.

"Please stay still until the decontamination process is complete." A rather crazed male voice announced. "Any resistance will be met with immediate expulsion from the premises, which would be unfortunate because I'd hate to lose two valuable assets."

"Wait, what?" Tarin raised an eyebrow at the odd announcement.

"An AI?" Williams guessed.

"Greetings, I am Dantalion, and I am _fascinated_ in meeting two new subjects- I mean- visitors! Welcome to the Ryan Industries Lambda Complex, Rapture's premier scientific research and development laboratory facility! It is most fortunate that you have come, because the facility has recent run into staff shortages and current employment tactics have proven somewhat unsuccessful. I'm hoping you'll be willing to assist me on some experiments!" The AI chimed brightly.

"Is it me, or there something… odd about this AI?" Williams whispered.

"I think we should play along for now." Tarin whispered back. "No telling what this thing will do if we turn him down right now."

"Good point." Williams agreed and turned his head to the ceiling. "Okay, we're in."

"Excellent! I'm in need of a pair of lab assistants!" Dantalion giggled cheerfully. "I would've sucked the air out of the room if you refused. I've always been interested to see the effects of a pure vacuum on the human body, but that will have to wait another day! Come! There's science to be done!"

The opposing door then hissed open. The moment Williams stepped through it, he felt like a rat entering a trap. They were trapped in a hostile city with an apparently insane AI controlling their movements. Needless to say, this wasn't the best of situations.

"It's been so long…" Dantalion murmured, his whispers echoing through the halls. "I'm excited to be able to start my work again! Oh, the possibilities are endless and I already have six thousand ideas in mind!"

"What did we get ourselves into?" Williams quietly lamented.

"Hopefully nothing that's going to get us killed." Tarin replied.

What scared Williams the most was the lack of confidence in Tarin's voice. If she wasn't certain of it, well then, things were definitely very, very bad.

**Gateway Hub**

Sam slowly picked herself up from the ground, coughing out the water that had trickled its way into her throat and rubbing the extra moisture out of her eyes. She wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but she knew she was hit with a huge wall of water and carried off somewhere deeper into the city. She looked around and then realized that Leo was missing, which made her panic. First of all, she had nobody to watch her back, and more importantly, she had no idea what condition Leo was in. Realizing that she was panicking, Sam took a deep breath in an effort to relax and assess her situation. Right now, she had to try and find Leo, or anybody else for that matter. How she was going to achieve that was a whole different matter though, since she was completely lost and had no idea where to go. More water began to drip in her eyes from her soaked hair, and as she brushed it off, she realized that there was a deep cut in her forehead. The wound wasn't serious, but it was bleeding rather profusely and would become an annoyance. She reached for her first aid kit, but found that it wasn't there. She deduced that it had washed away.

"Damn it, of all the things to lose." She sighed. At least she still had her rifle, which counted for something. She wandered the area, trying to look for something to stem the bleeding from her minor cut. No sense in getting it infected in a place like this. She then started paying attention to the lit signs around her and caught sight of something that garnered her interest. "Huh, Medical Pavilion."

Sam then began to follow the signs to the Medical Pavilion. If she was right, then it would have medical facilities. Maybe there were some extra healing supplies left around, or at least something she could use to treat her cut. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?


	4. Just Open Wide and Say “Ah”

"_Doctors scare the shit outta me. It's not what you think though. I can stand the scalpels and the intrusive tests and the needles and all that, but what really scares me is if I have to be put under for surgery or something. I mean, there's something profoundly unnerving about having a bunch of guys you barely know have their way with your unconscious body for the next few hours. That's why I tried my hand at med school, because I didn't want to be put into a position like that."_

_-Kumi Leeds, during a mandatory psych-evaluation_

Chapter 4: Just Open Wide and Say "Ah"

**Gateway Hub**

"So," Leo panted as he sprinted down the street down the underwater street. "what's the deal with the Medical Pavilion? Why's it off limits?"

"The Medical Pavilion was, and still is, run by a Dr. Steinman, a pretty creepy guy who's always been on the crazy end of the insanity meter. I don't know why Ryan invited him to Rapture, but I heard he was a very skilled doctor back in the day."

"Uh huh." The part where Atlas mentioned Steinman being crazy was not a comforting thought at all. "And what does he do now?"

"Oh, he's become even crazier than before. He's basically devolved to the point where he and his gang of doctors and nurses roam the city, kidnapping anybody they can find and… well… I'm not sure how to put this."

"Try me."

"Okay." Atlas took a deep breath. "I suspect Steinman used to be some big plastic or reconstructive surgeon or something like that, because he's almost always concerned with how his patient looks. I heard he had his license revoked when he made a few _unauthorized modifications_ to several of his patients when he put them under and they sued the crap outta him. Unfortunately for us, Ryan had a tendency to value brilliance over insanity and recruited Steinman to be chief surgeon. Now he just spends his days finding 'patients', taking them to his operating room, and try to turn them into his own twisted vision of beauty."

"Something tells me I'm not going to like this." Leo said.

"Oh, you'll soon see for yourself once you get there." Atlas said forebodingly. "I recommend you don't eat much."

**Medical Pavilion**

It didn't take long for Sam to find a small collection of seemingly forgotten first aid kits lying on the floor. She casually picked it up and examined it, noticing that it was slightly different from the aid kits she was used to. Instead of the traditional bandages and disinfectant, the kit seemed to contain injectors and wipes coated with some kind of oily material. Reading the faded instructions on the kit, she took one of the wipes and rubbed it across her forehead. The wipes stung a little, but when she felt where the cut on head was supposed to be, all she felt was unbroken skin and she realized that the cut had completely disappeared. There weren't even any signs of scarring or scabs.

"Huh, pretty handy stuff." She said to herself.

However, as Sam continued on into the Medical Pavilion, the growing sense and unease that something was out of place began to grow. She noticed there were increasingly larger amounts of partially dried blood spattered all over the walls and floor, and the smears suggested that the bodies that supplied the blood had been dragged away at some point in time. It wasn't long before she came across a message scrabbled on the walls in blood.

STEINMAN KILLS

Again, Sam's uneasiness grew and hit a peak when she saw what looked like a woman sitting in a wheelchair.

"Excuse me?" Sam said softly, afraid of speaking too loud and attracting unwanted attention. "Miss?"

Pistol in hand, Sam cautiously inched forward toward the woman. She grabbed the back of the wheelchair and spun it around, its rusted wheels creaking and groaning in protest. Sam then got a good look at the woman and fell backward in surprise, fighting the urge to shriek. The woman, or what was left of her, had been slashed to ribbons, with incision marks all over her body and clothes, and she was pinned to the wheelchair by surgical scissors and other sharp implements. However, the sight that scared Sam the most was literally right in front of her eyes.

The woman had no face.

Somebody, or something, and cut the woman's face off with all of the grace and precision of a grunt on KP duty peeling a potato. All that was left of the woman's face were several torn tatters of flesh and skin, with the bone of her skull clearly visible. Sam suddenly felt dizzy, and felt the urge to vomit. Fortunately, she managed to keep her revulsion confined in her stomach and looked around in a panic and realized this was no special case. She was surrounded by dozens of occupied wheelchairs.

Afraid to inspect the rest of the wheelchair-ridden occupants, Sam tried not to look at them and continued on deeper into the pavilion. There was no doubt that whoever was in charge here, he had a serious grudge against the fairer sex. The front lobby of the pavilion was littered with more mutilated corpses, and now they were no longer confined to wheelchairs. Some of them were suspended from the ceiling, or nailed to the walls. The faded and sloppily written messages in blood suggested that these poor women were still alive when they were put here.

Sam then heard the small, faint pattering of bare feet on tile. Gulping in nervousness, Sam crept forward toward the source of the sound, which morphed into the humming of a little girl. This now made Sam more curious than scared as to how a little girl would end up in a hellhole like this. She then rounded the corner to see several dead bodies. Judging from the amount of decay, Sam deduced that they hadn't been dead for very long. It was then Sam heard the familiar pattering of feet and turned her head to see a tiny girl who couldn't have been older than nine years old. However, there were signs that told Sam that this wasn't any normal little girl. She was wearing a worn, dirty pink smock, had a pale, pallid complexion and ratty black hair. But the thing that unnerved Sam the most was that her eyes were glowing a dull orange.

"Hello?" Sam said as she inched toward the girl. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

But the girl started humming to herself and walked past Sam as if she weren't even there. The girl then absentmindedly took out a large extractor, waddled over to the nearest body, and stabbed it with the extractor.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Sam said in surprise and began to move toward the girl to stop her when she heard a dull but powerful thudding noise behind her. It felt like an earthquake, but Sam realized that it wasn't anything natural. Then, around the corner, a massive armored beast approached. At first, Sam mistook the thing for a Spartan, but realized that it was too massive and bulky for even a Spartan. No, it was something completely different. The thing gave an inhuman groan and waddled toward the girl. Sam raised her pistol, preparing to defend herself when the girl squealed.

"Mr. Bubbles!" She said happily, momentarily pausing her odd task.

The armored beast groaned, its visor glowing a soothing green color. He waddled forward and allowed the girl to hug it. It was so massive, that the little girl's arms couldn't even reach around its sides. While intrigued by the whole spectacle, Sam realized that she was wasting time and decided to move on. The girl and the beast were no immediate threat to her, so she could afford to ignore them for the time being. Keeping her distance from the odd couple, Sam continued deeper into the pavilion. Moving farther in, Sam realized she was in some sort of medical plaza. All around her, she could see various private medical offices ranging from all kinds of specialties from orthopedics to optometrists. The majority of the offices were boarded up and sealed, and the few that weren't had their windows and doors smashed in and were completely ransacked.

Suddenly, her foot caught on something. Sam's heart nearly stopped and realized that she had only tripped on a dead body. While it didn't do much to calm her nerves, at least she knew that the body wouldn't pose much of a threat to her. She noticed that the body was clutching a shotgun, with a box of shells lying nearby. While Sam wasn't a big fan of shotguns, she only had her pistol and sniper rifle, which meant that having any close range weapon was a welcoming prospect. She picked up the shotgun and inspected it. The weapon was still in good condition and was combat ready. She then bent down to pick up some of the dropped shotgun shells, making sure to load some into the shotgun.

Then, at that moment, the lights in the plaza flickered and died, leaving Sam in darkness. Reacting quickly, Sam pumped the shotgun and aimed at the blackness. All she could see was the faint lighting from the few neon signs that still worked, but other than that, she was trapped in complete darkness. It wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't hear all of the insane cackling and laughter in the background. It looked as if Sam was going have to use that old shotgun after all…

**Fleet Hall**

After what seemed like an eternity wandering through the dark maintenance tunnels, Karla was glad to finally see a change in scenery. McDonagh had led her to an inconspicuous door that led to the back of what looked like the remains of some ritzy nightclub. At the other end of the room, there was a massive window that presented an awe inspiring vista of both the ocean and the surrounding cityscape. However, it was marred by the general disrepair and neglect of the rest of the building. The abandoned tables and chairs held forgotten items, stale drinks, and spoiled food. The once magnificent wooden bar was waterlogged and near the point of rotting away, and leaking pipes had flooded the lower lying areas of the club.

"This is far as I can take you." McDonagh said. "From this point on, you're on your own."

"So, you're just going to go, just like that?"

"Well, not exactly. That would just be rude of me to abandon a nice lass like you." McDonah handed Karla a scrap of paper. "Here's my radio frequency. We can maintain contact and you can use your helmet camera to feed me visual data."

"Thanks." Karla accepted the scrap of paper and mentally memorized the note. "So where do you go from here?"

"I'm going to continue to find a way to a put a stop to Ryan." McDonah said resolutely. "There's got to be something in this city that can help me do it."

"Well, if you need help, you know who to call."

"Same to you, Major."

With those words, McDonagh retreated back through the maintenance door, letting the door shut behind him. Even though she could still contact McDonah via radio, Karla suddenly felt alone and isolated again. She was used to the feeling, but it wasn't one that she enjoyed very much, especially in a combat situation. Hefting her rifle, she moved to try and find the exit to the nightclub.

**Saint Fontaine's Home for the Underprivileged**

From his experiences in the field, as well as the accounts of veterans that served before him, Paccone could instantly tell what this room was used for. The fortified door and walls, the rows of radios and other communication gear, tables and walls covered in maps, and a large, well stocked armory of weapons all screamed "makeshift headquarters". Paccone had mostly seen these setups from resource-scarce Marine advance units, and even homebrewed civilian resistance groups fighting off Covenant invasions. There were also accounts of setups like these being used by insurgents and terrorist cells during the good old days when humans were the biggest threat the UNSC faced.

"Looks like somebody set up a base here." Paccone said.

"Yeah, but for what?" Kumi wondered, shuffling through some of the old maps.

"I'm more interested in why there's nobody here." Paccone pondered for a second, but got back to the issue at hand. "Anyways, this is perfect. We can use some of this equipment for our own purposes. We can turn this into our field HQ and base of operations. The weapons here should also beef up whatever we have left."

"I'll get right on it, Sarge." Kumi said.

"Actually, Maude can handle it. I have a different job for you." Paccone made his way to the stairs and motioned for her to follow him. "Come on, do I have to hold your hand?"

"Coming, Sarge!" Kumi followed the sergeant, wondering what in the world he needed her to do other than setting up the HQ. They descended two flights of stairs down to the third level, which was already confirmed cleared by the Marine fireteams sweeping the building. Because it was also the most intact and clean floor, it was being converted into a makeshift aid station. Already, wounded Marines were lounging about or lying in the old beds scattered around. Off in the corner, a small pile of about a dozen corpses of the unknown tangos was awaiting inspection and disposal.

"See those bodies?" Paccone pointed to the pile of dead hostiles.

"Uh, yeah…" Kumi had already suspected what was going to happen, and a sharp knot formed in her stomach.

"Good, because I want you to cut them open and see what makes them tick."

Kumi sighed, half surprised at the gruesome task Paccone was asking of her. "Why me? I'm a Marine, not a doctor!"

"Yeah, well you went to medical school, right?"

"I barely stayed there for a term before signing up with the Marines." Kumi responded defensively.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately, that means you're the most medically trained Marine here." Paccone motioned to the rest of the Marines milling about in the infirmary. He decided it wasn't time to press Kumi any more on the issue. "The extent of most of their medical knowledge is to find bullet holes, spray them with biofoam, apply a band-aid, and then kiss the boo boo if the wounded guy cries."

Kumi sighed, obviously knowing that she couldn't worm her way out of this duty. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Okay, just pick up whoever you need to help you. I'm going to go and see if I can get somebody on the goddamn radio."

**Lambda Complex**

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Dantalion squealed happily to himself as he had a robotic drone lead Tarin and Williams through the Lambda Complex. "What should I do first… hmmmmm… This might take a few tenths of a second…"

While following the drone, Tarin and Williams took a chance to look at the rooms on either side of the hallway. Through the open doors and dusty windows, all they could see were empty offices and conference rooms. There was the odd computer terminal and projector screen still on, their faint light and humming breaking up the dead silence, but that was about it. There was no other evidence of any life whatsoever in the complex.

"I don't like this." Tarin said as she glanced in yet another empty office. "Where did all the people go? From the state of the city outside, you'd think that at least some people would have taken shelter in here, but there's no evidence of that at all."

"It might have something to do with the AI." Williams whispered back. "You notice that there's no way to contact the outside from in here? All of the wireless signals are being blocked and it looks like the land lines are all cut."

"I've noticed." Tarin nodded, but before she could continue, Dantalion's piercing voice interrupted her.

"If you could, please don't lag behind the guide drone. As the regulations in the contract you signed state, Ryan Industries is not responsible for any injury or loss of life that you may incur in this facility. It would be a pity if our two newest employees were to be terminated on the first day."

The guide drone, waiting patiently for Tarin and Williams to catch up to it, suddenly shot forward again, leading both Marines through more halls before finally reaching a door with a large red cross painted on it.

"As employee regulations stipulate, you are required to undergo a mandatory and extremely uncomfortable medical examination. I would recommend that you follow all directions given to you by the trained medical staff, even if it conflicts with your existing opinions on medical treatment. Treatment varies from individual to individual, and we cannot guarantee that you will pass, but we _can_ guarantee that the entire experience will be very, very unpleasant."

"Do we even want to go in?" Williams hesitated as the doors hissed open.

"Do we have a choice?" Tarin asked.

"Of course not!" Dantalion said cheerfully. "You signed away all of your rights and decision-making abilities when you signed the employee contract and entered this facility! It is a safeguard against those petty surface conceptions like _ethics_ and _morality_." Those two words marked a change in his voice from cheerfulness to pure disdain, but then quickly reverted back his usual cheerful self. "In the Lambda Complex, the only thing we are concerned with is _Science_!"

Reluctantly, both Tarin and Williams stepped inside the infirmary. However, once they entered, all they saw was an empty doctor's office. Various medical tools and equipment were scattered around, as well has several syringes filled with strange, oddly glowing substances of various colors.

"Huh." Dantalion said, sounding genuinely surprised. "It appears that the medical staff have taken a day off without telling me! Well, it looks like you won't have to undergo the medical screening after all!"

"What a travesty." Tarin said sarcastically.

"Well then, that means we can get straight to the testing! I mean, work!" Dantalion said happily without missing a beat. "I need you to help retrieve an item of special importance to help me continue with some of my cataloguing duties."

"What kind of item?" Williams asked.

"Ryan Industries item C-239: the GeneScan Recording Device." The AI responded. "Primary function is to record the subject's DNA and plasmids and analyze the powers that they convey. It's small, compact, simple to use, and comes in five different colors."

"Well, I'm sold." Tarin said unenthusiastically. "Where do we get one?"

"Unfortunately, supply is rather short. The only one I know of that is still functional resides in the Rapture Police Department Headquarters. It's a very simple task, and shouldn't require much effort, though I do recommend you stop by the armory and equip yourselves with the heaviest armor and weaponry available. I would very much like for you to retrieve the item, because I need it to start cataloging the newest samples, and the ones I have in my possession are… outdated."

"Uh huh." Tarin narrowed her eyes.

"Um, what are those?" Williams asked, pointing at the syringes.

"Oh! I forgot! Those are part of your required injections, as per Article XI of your contract!" Dantalion continued. "If you would please just administer them yourselves."

"Uh, are you sure?" Williams asked, picking one of the three syringes up and examining it. It had an odd, aqua blue color to it.

"It's perfectly safe! I would use them myself, if I had any organic parts." Dantalion said happily. "Hmmm, that gives me another idea for an experiment…."

"You go first. That way, if it turns out to be lethal, at least one of us will survive."

"Jeez, thanks for the support, Tarin." Williams sighed and pressed the injector against his arm. "Well, here goes nothing."

**Medical Pavilion**

Sam panted as she reloaded her shotgun with fresh shells. She had no idea where these… things came from, but she was definitely sure that they weren't friendly. Already, the bodies of a pair of nurses lay at her feet, their blood pooling beneath her boots. The lights were out, so Sam had to be extra keen on additional attacks that she knew were coming. She could _hear_ more of the deranged medical staff, dashing around, knocking over items and sometimes even taunting her.

"It won't hurt one bit!"

"You'd better come out, I just want to bind your wounds!"

"Don't worry, I'm a professional!"

"Are you there? The nurses don't like you… but I do!"

"I won't hurt you, I just want to see what's inside."

The strange, twisted way these seemingly innocent phrases were being said made Sam's stomach turn. She wished she could just slip on her nightvision goggles, but she was to afraid to even take one hand off of the shotgun. She heard more footsteps. Sam whipped around just in time to catch a crazed doctor charging her. His blood soaked coat and face didn't even make Sam's trigger finger hesitate. The shotgun shell struck the doctor full force, sending him toppling to the ground. Unfortunately, it seemed to just whip up the rest of the crazed medical staff into a blood frenzy, and they all began to pour in. Fortunately, Sam's vision was beginning to adjust to the darkness, and she wasn't one of the best goddamn snipers in the Marine Corps for nothing. She unloaded five more shells into the oncoming horde, sending a half dozen nurses and doctors tumbling to the round, howling in pain. She then realized her shotgun was dry, and quickly drew her standard issue combat knife, stabbing it straight into the throat of an oncoming nurse. She then quickly pulled it out, leaving the nurse gurgling and clutching her bleeding throat.

The next few seconds were a complete blur. During the brief lulls in combat, Sam would load as many fresh shells as she could into her shotgun, but she often hardly had any time to load more than one or two before she had to start firing again. By the time the screaming and shrieking finally began to die down, Sam was out of breath, out of shells, and almost out of fighting spirit. Dozens of dead or dying medical staff lay scattered on the ground around her, and the blood was beginning to pool into thick puddles of sludge that made the already filthy tiles even more disgusting. It seemed like she had finally gotten them all, and Sam began to relax one on final doctor she seemed to have missed burst out from a boarded up storefront.

"I swore an oath to do no harm... and I mostly meant it." The doctor giggled gleefully, brandishing a rusty scalpel and lunging at Sam.

Sam tried to move out of the way, but the adrenaline had already drained out of her system and the firefight had sapped too much of her strength. All Sam could do was raise her arms to protect her face as the doctor slammed into her. The force of the blow sent Sam falling on her back. The doctor then stabbed down with his scalpel. Fortunately for Sam, standard Marine body armor consisted of a thick, woven material imbedded with lightweight but tough ceramic plates. On a good day, a fresh vest could withstand several direct rifle bursts from a MA5B assault rifle, which meant that it was more than enough to handle a rusty scalpel. The small cutting instrument snapped in two, leaving the doctor quite speechless. Mustering up some hidden strength, Sam lashed out with her arm, smashing her elbow into the doctor's eye socket. The doctor clutched his face, screaming in agony, which gave Sam enough time to pull the scalpel blade out of her chestplate and shove it straight into the doctor's throat. The doctor spasmed, coughed, and then fell over to the side, dead.

Breathing with relief, Sam got up to her feet but was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness. She then realized there was a sharp pain in her left thigh, and looked down to find out why she had felt so tired. She only had enough time to pull the empty injector out of her leg and examine it for a few seconds before hitting the blood soaked ground in a heap. She tried to stay conscious, but that was easier said than done. Whatever drug was in that syringe, it did a very good job of keeping her disabled. She seemed to dip in and out of consciousness when she heard more footsteps approach. Her heart raced when she realized that it was more of the crazed inhabitants. However, they weren't dressed in the blood soaked white coats of the doctors or nurses, but rather in frayed, torn civilian clothing with their faces covered by cheap Halloween masks.

"What do we have here?" One of the scavengers asked enthusiastically.

"Looks like she just had her cherry popped!" The second scavenger laughed. "Let's see if she's got any ADAM on her!"

"Shhh! You hear that?" The third one whispered.

The scavengers then became deadly quiet, straining their ears. In the distance, even Sam's distorted senses could detect a fait, melodious hum, growing louder as the source came closer.

"Shit! It's Him!" The first scavenger squealed and ran off in a panic.

"Hey! What are you doing? Come back here!" The second scavenger yelled.

"You can stay here if you want!" The third scavenger also ran. "But I don't want t be caught by Him!"

"Cowards! Every last one of you!" The second scavenger screamed angrily. He then bent down next to Sam and whispered to her in a carnivorous grin, "If you thought we were bad, little girl, wait until Steinman finds you and gives you his 'special treatment'."

Then, cackling madly, the scavenger disappeared into the darkness. Sam made another desperate effort to get to her feet, but was only met with unconsciousness again.

When Sam groggily opened her eyes again, she realized she was moving. She tried to move her arms and legs, but found she was still paralyzed by that mystery drug. She then looked down and saw that she was in a wheelchair, slowly being pushed along an empty, dilapidated hallway. She couldn't see the man pushing her, but she could definitely hear him.

"Yes, it was very fortunate we found her, Aphrodite." The man muttered to himself. "Years of work, years of fruitless mistakes, but I think we have found the one!"

The man finally stopped inside a darkened room, the only light being the one over a bloodstained operating table. Sam could see that there was already a woman strapped down on the table, vainly trying to struggle against her bonds and escape her inevitable fate.

"But what can I do with this one, Aphrodite? She won't...stay...still! I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong! That one, too fat! This one, too tall! This one, too symmetrical!" The doctor screamed in anguish as more lights turned on.

Sam could then see the true horror of the man's work. There, strung up on the ceiling like crucified saints, hung numerous women, all mutilated beyond recognition. Some were completely skinned, others with multiple incisions or amputations, and even some without faces. If Sam's motor skills weren't impaired, she would've thrown up. To ram home the point that this doctor was mad, he was repeatedly stabbing the woman on the table with various surgical implements in anger. He then glanced up at Sam.

"But _this_ one… yes… she seems to be just right. _Perfect_. Well, not completely _perfec_t, but we can fix the _flaws_…"

The doctor then shoved the woman, who was still alive, off the table and then, with superhuman strength, lifted Sam out of the wheelchair and laid her on the operating table, stripping off her helmet and body armor. At this point, the drugs were beginning to wear off and Sam could begin to move again.

"Nuh uh uh…" The doctor tutted disapprovingly as he then strapped Sam down to the table. "We can't have you moving around during the operation. You might get hurt…"

Sam wasn't in the mood to appreciate the irony of the statement. Like the woman in the table before her, Sam struggled in vain to break free from her bonds, but she was too weak and the bonds were too strong. The doctor then grabbed her face, stroking his bare, blood crusted hand across it as if to feel every detail.

"Yes… so beautiful… so perfect… she almost reminds me of _you_, Aphrodite. But this face, it's too _symmetrical_. We're going to have to do something about that…"

The doctor then lowered the scalpel he was holding closer and closer to Sam's face. Sam tried to scream, but the doctor clamped his other hand over her mouth, reducing her voice to a strangled squeal.

"Shhhh… shhhh…" The doctor said soothingly, like a mother trying to coax her child to sleep. All the while, the scalpel came closer. However, something apparently caught his attention and his head shot up and his face twisted in revulsion. "What is _that_?! It's… it's… _HIDEOUS!_ He is _ugly! Ugly ugly ugly ugly…!_"

The doctor then tossed the scalpel aside, reached somewhere out of Sam's view, and whipped out an old MA4B assault rifle. Because she was strapped down to the table, Sam couldn't see what was happening around her. However, she could hear gunfire, screaming, and all sort sorts of mayhem. She had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, everything fell silent. She then heard footsteps off to her right, and she craned her head to see who it was. The sight made tears well up in her eyes, and for the first time ever since she found herself alone, she was relieved.

"Leo!" Sam cried happily. It wasn't even a question at all, just a statement, as if she knew he'd come.

"Honestly, I leave you alone for a few minutes, and you're making friends with the locals already." Leo said, exhausted. He then began to undo the straps holding Sam down.

Once the last strap was taken off, Leo was surprised when Sam quickly got up and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing in his shoulder. Leo couldn't imagine what his best friend had gone through, and all he could do was return the embrace.

"I'm so glad you're here." Sam sniffed. "Where were you all this time?"

"Funny story actually…"

"Tell me later." Sam said, still locked in the hug. After all the horrors she had just witnessed, this was the best feeling in the world, and she didn't want it to end. Not yet. Not ever.


	5. Everybody Wants to be a Superhero

_"I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics they've ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so everyone can be superheroes! Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... [laughs maniacally... no one will be"_

_-Syndrome_

Chapter 5: Everybody Wants to be Superhero

**Medical Pavilion**

**Thirty Minutes Ago**

"Holy crap, what the hell happened to this place?" Leo gasped as he passed yet another mutilated corpse.

"Steinman happened, that's what." Atlas said grimly. "These days, the man's taken up grabbing whatever woman he can find on the street and carving them up, calling the end result 'art'. So far, from what I can tell, all of these are failures, but that doesn't stop him from trying."

"You don't think he's going to…"

"Oh you can bet your friend's sweet arse that he'll try turn her into 'art' if he ever catches her." Atlas said. "Which is why I suggest you hurry."

"Right." Leo nodded resolutely and continued on into the Medical Pavilion.

"By the way," Atlas chimed in, "have you ever heard of plasmids."

"Of course not." Leo said as he stepped over another body. "I barely know what the hell half the things I'm killing are."

"Plasmids are what made and destroyed Rapture." Atlas explained. "They're basically derived from ADAM, which are basically pure human stem cells, and they made it possible to alter a person's genetic structure to allow them to do things no normal human could ever hope to achieve."

"So what, running faster than a speeding bullet and leaping over buildings in a single bound kind of powers?" Leo was a bit in disbelief.

"Exactly." Atlas confirmed. "Pretty much all of the splicers have plasmids of some kind. In fact, they've become so dependent on them an ADAM that they've all basically become nutcases. Unfortunately, if you're going to survive in this city, you're going to need plasmids of your own."

"Wait, won't I become one of… _them_?" Leo said, referring to the splicers.

"Not if you keep your head on straight." Atlas said reassuringly. "It's like alcohol. It's excellent in moderation, but nasty like a mother when you abuse it."

"I guess I'll take your word for it." Leo said, carefully peeking around the corner for any more splicers. "I don't suppose you have any on hand."

"No, but you're in the medical pavilion. I'm sure there are a few still left in there somewhere."

It was a chore fighting through the crazed splicers that were once the doctors and nurses that ran this place. Fortunately, most of them were lightly armed, with lead pipes and scalpels that were no match for Leo's battle rifle. Besides the rare few individuals toting an antiquated revolver or two, Leo found the splicers here not much of a challenge, as long as he stayed alert and didn't let them get them jump on him.

"Pretty damn determined lot, aren't they?" Leo panted as he fought his way past another knot of splicers.

"They don't take kindly to intruders." Atlas mused. "But then again, they don't really take kindly to just about everybody."

"Whoa, what do we have here..." Leo slid to a halt as he entered what looked like a small plaza. There, piled up at the center of the plaza was a heap of slain doctors and nurses. From the looks of it, the majority of them were slain by weapons fire. To confirm the theory, Leo noticed dozens of spent shotgun shells scattered all over the floor.

"Oh, she was definitely here." Atlas quipped. "The splicers are too crazed to use weapons very effectively. This is all too precise and accurate."

"I think you're right." Leo stopped when he heard an odd, melodious humming. "What's that?"

"Oh lord." Atlas gasped. "That's Steinman!"

It didn't take very long for Leo to put two and two together. He ran after the sound, yelling, "Sam!"

Leo sprinted down a flight of stairs just in time to see a tall doctor in a blood crusted lab coat slowly carting a squeaky wheelchair down the hall. To his horror, he managed to catch a brief glimpse of Sam sitting limply in the wheelchair, but before he could do anything, a steel blast door sealed shut between him and Steinman.

"No!" Leo pounded the door in anguish.

"You don't have much time left!" Atlas said urgently. "Your only hope is to find some plasmid that can help you."

Leo didn't waste any time sprinting back to the pavilion hastily searching the offices for anything of use. Not even the boarded up storefronts stopped him. He kicked down the doors, gunning down anything that moved, not caring if it was friendly or not. He finally managed to break into what looked like a lab, though it was half flooded. Wading through the filthy waist deep water, Leo saw a pair of syringes each labeled as plasmids. One was labeled "Lightning" and the other "Telekinesis".

"I think I found some." Leo said.

"Good, take one and save the other. You don't want to take too many too fast."

"Any reason why?" Leo asked.

"You'll find out soon enough."

Not wanting to waste any more time, Leo clenched his teeth stabbed one of the syringes into his arm. He could feel the fluid flow through his veins. He then felt a prickly sensation in his arm, like it was building up a static charge when the pain suddenly rocketed through his brain. Leo cried out in agony as Atlas tried to calm him down.

"Don't worry." Atlas said reassuringly. "It's only a natural reaction. Your body isn't used to plasmids yet. Your DNA is being rewritten, just bear it out."

That was easier said than done. Leo stumbled around clumsily before falling against a wall and blacking out.

"Leo, Leo! Can you hear me?"

Leo groaned as Atlas' concerned voice roused him from unconsciousness. "How long was I out?"

"Not long, you only blacked out for a minute there."

Leo groaned again, and tried to get up when a bolt of lightning suddenly shot from his arm, short circuiting some of the lights in the room.

"What the hell!?" He cried out in surprise

"That's the plasmid." Atlas said. "It'll work as long as you've got EVE to power it. It's basically a derivative of ADAM, and it shouldn't be too hard to come across."

Indeed, Leo then noticed several capsules labeled "EVE" scattered around on the floor. Seeing that they were now valuable, he grabbed a handful of the capsules and got to his feet. "Is this enough?"

"Theoretically, you could short circuit the door controls…"

Leo was already on his feet and out the door, sprinting back to the steel blast door. He didn't stop. He held out his hand and concentrated, blasting the door control with a good dose of pure electric power. The mechanisms keeping the door shut short circuited and the door slid open, allowing Leo access inside. Immediately, a pair of automated sentry guns activated to deal with the new intruder, but two quick lightning blasts solved the problem quickly. Not caring about anything else, Leo sprinted down the hall just in time to reach an operating room observation window. Looking through, he saw Steinman looming over Sam's body in the operating room below.

"Sam!" Leo yelled instinctively, pounding on the glass.

Steinman apparently heard him, because he then looked up, gave a repulsed look, and whipped out an assault rifle, pointing it straight at Leo. Thinking quickly, Leo dove to the side as a hail of automatic fire shattered the observation window. Leo didn't dare return fire in fear of accidentally hitting Sam, and knew he needed to get closer. Leo leapt through the empty space that once held the window and landed deftly on his feet. He rolled as Steinman fired another burst of rifle fire at his direction. Leo hid behind a support column, being careful not to concentrate on the hideous "gallery" hanging above him.

"My my, I can't afford to have troublesome patients interrupt my work!" Steinman grumbled. "Nurse!"

"Coming, doctor!" A knot of four disfigured and partially mutilated nurses appeared in the operating room, wielding various weapons ranging from power saws, scalpels, and submachine guns.

"Dispose of this hideous intruder!" Steinman barked.

"Awwww, do we have to?" One of the nurses teased. "He's kinda cute."

"Dibs on his head!" Another nurse cackled, revving up her power saw.

Leo gulped and backed off, firing his assault rifle at the nurses, but they were fast and clever, using all available cover to shield their approach.

"Use your plasmid!" Atlas urged. "Shock em and hit em! The one-two punch!"

Leo nodded and aimed for the closest nurse. He fired a burst of electricity, paralyzing her and forcing her to drop her bone saw. Leo then took the chance to fire a three round burst directly into her chest. He fired off another quick burst of lightning at a second nurse, which short circuited her power saw and cased it to explode in her hands, the metal shrapnel shredding her to pieces. The third nurse was easily dispatched with another one-two punch. The fourth nurse, armed with a submachine gun, was quickly dispatched when a short electric burst cooked off the ammunition in her weapon, causing it blow apart in her hands and kill her. With all four nurses down, it was only Steinman left.

"You are a persistent little worm." Steinman growled. "But it looks as if you are a problem I must deal myself!"

Leo raised his arm to fire another bolt of lightning, but nothing came out. Remembering what Atlas had told him, Leo figured that his plasmid had run out of juice. He ducked back behind a support column as more automatic fire from Steinman barked in his direction. Leo took a second to administer a capsule of EVE, and the veins in his arm began to glow with a reassuring blue hue. Leo then realized he needed a way to eliminate Steinman without putting Sam at risk. The made doctor was still uncomfortably close, and Leo wasn't confident enough that he wouldn't accidentally hit her. Looking around, Leo noticed several cans of gasoline. He wondered for a second what use these people would have for such a primitive fuel source, but realized he could use it to his advantage. He grabbed one of the cans, unscrewed the lid, and tipped it over, pouring its contents all over the floor. The liquid then flowed freely down and began to pool at the drain under Steinman's feet. A nice little spark was enough to ignite the stream of gas. The trail of flame voraciously made its way down to Steinman's foot, and jumped to the cloth of his pant leg. It took several seconds for Steinman to notice that his left leg was engulfed in flame. When he finally did look down, he dropped his gun and panicked.

"It hurts! Oh god, it _hurts_! Aphrodite, you never told me it would hurt this much!" Steinman squealed in pain.

"Yo, Frankenstein, heads up!" Leo yelled, hurling another can of gasoline at Steinman. The can struck Steinman in the face, dousing him in more of the flammable substance. Within seconds, the crazed doctor was completely engulfed in flame.

"Aphrodite! Aphrodite! _HELP ME!_" Steinman screamed as he bolted for the rear of the operating room.

Leo wasn't sure what Steinman was trying to do, but followed the doctor anyway. He tracked Steinman to a large, flooded storage pit, and immediately guessed what the doctor was trying to do. Steinman leapt into the pool of water, dousing the flames that had eaten away at his clothes and flesh. Seeing the sight, Leo was struck with an idea as profound as the moment the apple fell on Newton's head. Focusing all of his concentration, Leo fired off the most powerful, intense lightning bolt he could into Steinman and the water around him. The mad doctor shrieked and convulsed as the electricity surged through his body, frying organs and wreaking havoc with his nervous system. Within seconds, the Steinman's steaming body stopped thrashing and lay still in the water, the only movement being the occasional twitch from some residual electrical signal.

To confirm that Steinman was _really_ dead, Leo emptied the remains of his clip into the twitching body, staining the water it was floating in blood red. He then hurriedly dashed back to the operating table to free Sam.

"Leo!" Sam cried happily. It wasn't even a question at all, just a statement, as if she knew he'd come.

"Honestly, I leave you alone for a few minutes, and you're making friends with the locals already." Leo said, exhausted. He then began to undo the straps holding Sam down.

Once the last strap was taken off, Leo was surprised when Sam quickly got up and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing in his shoulder. Leo couldn't imagine what his best friend had gone through, and all he could do was return the embrace.

"I'm so glad you're here." Sam sniffed. "Where were you all this time?"

"Funny story actually…"

"Tell me later." Sam said, still locked in the hug.

"You two better get moving." Atlas said, breaking up the moment. "It won't be long till more splicers come."

"That's right." Leo started picking up Sam's dropped gear and helped her get her armor back on.

"Leo, what's wrong with your arm?" Sam gasped as she caught sight of the faint glow of electricity coursing through his right arm.

"Oh, this, that's also a long story. In short form, superpowers in a can, which reminds me…" Leo dug into his pockets and took out the second injector containing the telekinesis plasmid. "Here's an early Christmas present."

"Um, are you sure about this?" Sam eyed the injector curiously.

"Couldn't have gotten this far without it." Leo pointed to his right arm.

"Whatever you say." Sam gritted her teeth as Leo placed the injector in her arm. With a soft _puff_, the plasmid began to take root in her system. Being already weakened from the previous ordeal, Sam quickly faded off into unconsciousness before she felt the more intense parts of the experience, which was fortunate, in Leo's opinion. Leo then gingerly picked up Sam in his arms and promptly carried her out of the medical pavilion.

**Makeshift Marine HQ**

Kumi fought to keep her raging stomach under control as her knife slowly cut open the cadaver's abdomen. Though she did have some experience at dissection, it was only on animals and test dummies, never actual human beings. Alongside her were her two "assistants", Corpsman Jennifer Andrews and Franklin Oliver. They had just as little idea of what they were doing as her, for better or worse. All of them had been trained to identify and treat wounds, not to examine and analyze them. There was a reason why they just stabilized patients to keep them alive long enough for real doctors to treat them.

"Okay." Kumi coughed as she dug through the cadaver's abdomen. "Doesn't seem to be anything special or out of place in here."

"Wait, I think I got something." Andrews said as she dug deeper in. "Agh, false alarm." She said dejectedly as she pulled out a 7.62mm round.

"Okay, let's check the extremities then." Kumi cut open the cadaver's right arm and gasped.

"What's wrong?" Oliver asked.

"This was supposed to be one of the tangos that shot fire, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well…" Kumi pulled apart the skin to make the cut wider. "I think we've found out why."

"Really?"

"Look here." Kumi pointed at several strange organs in the arm. "This arm here contains two sacs of chemicals, when combined, turn into a form of napalm that ignites on contact with open air. Not only that, it also has a specialized delivery system here in the wrist to shoot the mix out at high pressure."

"So basically, that means we have a guy firing fire out of his arms." Andrews concluded.

"Right, but it's the way these things were implanted that's curious. Actually, I shouldn't even be suing the term 'implant', because there are no signs of it."

"What, you mean this guy was born with this stuff?" Andrews gasped.

"No, I don't think so either." Kumi shook her head. "It looks like these anomalies were _grown_ inside the arm."

"Genetic engineering?" Oliver pondered.

"Most likely, but it's not like any kind I've ever seen." Kumi poked at the odd organs. "Even the top of the line genetics labs and companies couldn't match something like this, at least not in any practical manner."

"Huh." Andrews grinned. "If you know so much, why'd you leave med school and end up in this dump with us Marines?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Kumi said harshly. "Let's dump this body before he starts stinking up the place, and let's move on to the next one."

Meanwhile, on the top floor, Paccone and a group of Marines were trying to get the radios to work. So far, efforts to raise any sort of contact were fruitless, much to Paccone's growing frustration.

"What's wrong?" Paccone growled.

"There's some kind of weird interference all over the city." Maude explained. "It's pretty much blocking all of the frequencies, so it's making long distance communication almost impossible."

"Damnit." Paccone breathed.

"Wait, I think I'm getting something." Maude strained his ears. "Sounds like a distress call."

"From who?" Paccone's attention was suddenly piqued.

"Sounds like what's left of the Major's unit!" Maude exclaimed.

"Maude, as of now, you're in temporary command of this HQ." Paccone said as he loaded up on ammunition and weapons. "Give me their location."

"Sir?"

"I'm going to help them. The Major might be with them, and god knows, we need her leadership right now. Get me the location, and I'll lead them back here."

"Yes sir!"

"Kumi!" Paccone yelled through the radio, "Drop what you're doing and meet me at the door, and pack for a trip. Weapons and ammo only."

**Lambda Complex**

"Quit scratching it." Tarin said disapprovingly at Williams. "_Honestly_."

"Hey, you try not scratching the thin layer of ice off your arm. What about your plasmid?"

"It's not that hard to control, you know." Tarin sighed as she pulled off her right glove and snapped her fingers, causing a small burst of fire in the air.

"Yes, complete mastery a plasmid power just half an hour after initial injection. A truly marvelous result!" Dantalion cut in, as if reminding the two Marines that he was still present. "It would be a great help in my future research endeavors!"

"We're not _really_ going to help him, are we?" Williams whispered once they had exited the Lambda Complex and were absolutely sure that Dantalion could not hear or see them.

"Of course not. We're getting the hell out of here." Tarin said. However, once she took several steps forward, she fell to her knee and started coughing.

"Tarin?" Williams bent down worryingly. "You all right?"

"Oh god…" Tarin's eyes widened when she realized her hand was covered with blood.

"Oh yes, one other thing I have forgotten." Dantalion's voice buzzed over the radio, now with a more sinister tone to his usually manic speech. "After some previous… _incidents_ with employees, Ryan Industries management has seen fit to require new employees to participate in the mandatory non-disclosure program. Any persons who decide to leave the company without permission from the proper departments will be terminated."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Williams yelled angrily, helping Tarin wipe some of the blood from her mouth.

"In addition to the plasmids, one of you was injected with a failsafe serum as per regulations n the non-disclosure agreement clause. Should you attempt perform any unauthorized action, it is well within the company's rights to forcefully terminate your contract."

"Shut up!" Williams yelled. "Stop making this sound like some fucking business! Haven't you taken a look around you? There's no Ryan Industries! There's no Rapture! _There's nothing here!_"

"The failsafe serum is controlled through a low frequency radio signal." Dantalion prattled on mindlessly. "Venturing out of range will cause it to activate, and should management deem it necessary, a special signal can be sent to trigger the serum. Effects vary from individual to individual, but once activated, mortality will often occur within the space of forty to sixty minutes via heart failure."

"You _bastard_." Tarin seethed as she slowly got to her feet. "You planned this all from the beginning."

"I was only following company policy." Dantalion responded matter-of-factly. "Now, would you kindly go and retrieve the item? There's research to be done!"

**Gateway Hub**

"So how's that plasmid working for you?" Leo asked wryly as he saw Sam attempting to use hers. He was afraid that Sam would have been permanently scarred by her experience with Steinman, but fortunately, trying to master her new plasmid seemed to be drawing her attention away from that painful event.

"It's awesome! I feel like a goddamn Jedi!" Sam said happily as she held her arm out. A plastic bottle then lifted up in the air, shot past her arm, and struck her square in the forehead. A bit embarrassed, Sam then continued, "But I still haven't worked out all the kinks yet."

"Just don't kill yourself or anything."

"Oh, it's only the grabbing part I have trouble with. I've got no problem tossing the stuff around, though." Sam demonstrated by waving her arm and the same plastic bottle shot off into the distance to land perfectly in a nearby trash can. "It's just the bigger objects that pose a problem."

"Size matters not." Leo nodded sagely, "What matters is-"

"Finish that sentence, and I'm going to Force choke you." Sam grunted.

"Okay, okay." Leo said. "I'll leave it all up to you then."

"Ah, it's okay. I've just heard that line so much that I'm sick to death of it." Sam reached out for a distant first aid kit and it flew in to land perfectly in her hand. "Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Shhh." Leo said, motioning for Sam to be quiet. "I think something's coming."

Sure enough, Atlas called in to warn them of ensuing danger. "Careful, you've got a bunch of splicers and a big daddy coming towards you."

"Big daddy?" Leo asked.

"Big, hulking armored beasts, you can't miss them. They're not terribly smart, but really dangerous. Just don't mess with them and they won't mess with you." Atlas paused, and then cursed. "Shit, looks like he's got a little sister with him. He'll be even more on edge."

"You mean those weird little girls?" Sam asked.

"You've seen one? Well yeah, that's what they used to be. All you need to know right now is that the big daddies protect them with their lives. They'll go beserk if you try to harm a little sister under their watch."

"Huh, that gives me and idea…" Leo grinned.

Seconds later, a knot of five splicers wielding various weapons sauntered into the street, obviously looking for trouble and some ADAM to scrounge. Four of them were armed with makeshift melee weapons like wrenches and lead pipes, but the lead one, being the strongest, carried an old assault rifle as his weapon. They caught sight of the big daddy on the other end of the street protecting a little sister, who was busy extracting used ADAM from the "angels". While tempted, the splicers were not dumb or desperate enough to try and grab the little sister and incur the big daddy's wrath. However, suddenly, the wrench one of the splicers was holding suddenly freed itself from his grip, floating in the air for a few seconds before shooting off and striking the big daddy straight in the face. The hulking armored monstrosity was confused at first, but the frightened squeal from the little sister was enough to put it into a blood frenzy. The first thing it saw was the group of splicers, and it immediately deduced them to be the source of the threat. The splicers, caught off guard, had no time to prepare. The big daddy's initial charge crushed one of the splicers into a wall, and a swing of its massive arm was enough to break two more splicers like toothpicks. The remaining two splicers retaliated, with one bashing at the big daddy with her pipe and the leader blasting away with his assault rifle. However, the attacks were paltry, not even able to pierce the big daddy's energy shielding. The big daddy then finished the job, grabbing the pipe-wielding by her skull and crushing it against the ground, and shoving the massive drill on its left arm straight into the leader. With all five splicers definitively dead and no other visible threat, the big daddy then calmed down, its visor shifting from a menacing red to a soothing green. The little sister squealed in delight when she saw more angels to harvest and rushed forward with her syringe.

The big daddy either didn't notice or didn't care about the pair of Marines dashing past it on the street. Either way, they weren't posing an immediate threat to the little sister, and it let them pass.

"Hmmm, quick reaction, ability to adapt, and a novel way in getting things done." Atlas said proudly. "You might just survive the challenges Rapture throws at you."

"Stop it, you're flattering me." Leo said jokingly.

"I could get used to this." Sam said happily, flexing her arm.

"Don't get too cocky." Atlas warned. "You've barely scratched the surface of Rapture, and things will get a whole lot worse than better. Just get back to the safehouse and I'll fill you in on everything you need to know."

**Fleet Hall**

After exiting the nightclub, Karla found herself wandering a small stage. She had already dispatched several splicers, but still had no luck in being able to contact any other Marines. She leapt up onto the stage and checked the back to see if there was anything valuable, but found nothing apart from some discarded food and a few capsules of blue liquid. When she turned around, she was startled to see a little girl casually sticking a huge syringe into one of the splicers she had just killed. Curious, Karla cautiously approached the girl, rifle raised.

"Who are you?" Karla asked, grabbing the girl's attention. The freakishly pallid and filthy girl stared at Karla with oddly glowing eyes, startling her.

Thinking that something was wrong with her, Karla moved in closer, causing the girl to yelp in fright and back off.

"I'm not going to the hurt you." Karla said, inching forward carefully. "I just want to-"

Suddenly, the girl gave and ear piercing shriek and that caused Karla to recoil. As she recovered from the sudden explosion of sound, Karla then heard a very deep, very loud roar behind her. She turned around just in time to see what looked like a giant, brutish parody of a Spartan leaping down from an upper level balcony, crashing into the stage and flattening it with its massive weight. The armored beast's visor turned red, and it gave a murderous glare in Karla's direction.

There was only one phrase that Karla could think of saying in a situation like this.

"Oh _hell no_."


	6. Big Daddy Day Care

"_The test results for Prototype 621 are… mixed. Subject has responded well to the surgical modifications and the armor bonding process. I must admit, this Doctor Halsey was extremely methodical and organized when it came to the creation of the SPARTANS. Ryan certainly has his hands everywhere. Anyways, back to the subject at hand. While Prototype 621 has proven efficient at its tasks, it does have one flaw. Unlike the other subjects, Prototype 621 appears to hold grudges, as if it is threatened, it will not stop its rampage until it hunts down its target. The causes of this are unclear. It may have been some anomaly during the modification stage, or some preexisting condition we were unaware of. Regardless, Prototype 621 will not be deployed for field operation and will be held for further study and analysis. _

_-Dr. Suchong's research notes_

Chapter 6: Big Daddy Day Care

**Fleet Hall**

For those brief seconds when the huge armored beast was closing in, Karla noticed that everything around her seemed to slow down in a state of hyper awareness. Karla had experienced this before, and had heard other soldiers talk about it. It had a multitude of names, depending on the soldier telling the story. Some of the names included fight time, combat high, and killing instinct. Regardless of the name, there was a point in every battle where everything seemed to slow down, and life or death were separated by a few mere seconds. She managed to sidestep right before the thing's armored fist flashed by, creating a deep impact crater in the wall behind her. Karla quickly glanced behind her and saw that not only did the beast's fist impact the wall, it went _straight through_ the concrete barrier.

However, this punch also made it so that the iron monstrosity's fist was stuck in the wall, temporarily immobilizing it. Karla then decided to take the chance and fired her assault rifle at the beast. However, in hindsight, firing at an armored hostile at point blank range was probably not such a great idea, _especially_ if said hostile had energy shielding. Bullets struck and ricocheted off the beast's shields, and Karla could feel bullet fragments cutting across her face and bouncing off her body armor. The iron beast didn't even feel the bullets at all. It just casually pulled its arm out of the wall and turned its attention to Karla again. This time, it was hefting a rather threatening looking gun in its other hand, which was pointing straight at Karla.

Thinking fast, Karla took cover behind a concrete column as massive steel nails punched through just about everything around her. One quick glance showed the nails digging several inches into the concrete she was taking cover behind. She then fired another automatic burst at the beast, but that only seemed to make it angrier and it charged again. Karla rolled away as the beast plowed straight through the concrete column. She had now taken to calling the thing "Jason" since the thing was just as big, ugly, and tough to kill as the fictional monster of the same name. Fortunately, another aspect that Jason shared with the original was that it wasn't terribly smart. By smashing through the concrete column, Jason caused the roof above him to fail and was rewarded with a pile of concrete and steel falling on top of his head. Karla was not even going to begin to believe that Jason was finished for good, and decided to take the chance to make her escape. She made her way out of the door and sprinted down the hall, not stopping until she was sure she had gained enough distance between herself and Jason.

"What the hell was all that commotion?" McDonagh's voice squawked.

"I was just attacked by a big, ugly metal monstrosity that didn't exactly have a very bright temperament." Karla panted, trying to regain her breath.

"Oh damn." McDonagh gasped. "You didn't go and piss off a Big Daddy, did you?"

"I'm getting the feeling that you forgot to tell me something really _really_ important." Karla sighed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd be running into one so soon." McDonagh said, slightly embarrassed. "They're fairly rare these days."

"Well then, anything I should know about them?" Karla asked, slightly annoyed. "Besides the fact that they're almost impossible to kill?"

"Basically, their only purpose is to guard Little Sisters, those odd little things that look like little girls." McDonagh said. "They basically won't bother you unless they feel you're a threat to the Little Sisters."

"And on the off chance that you do?"

"Well, then you'd either have to kill the big daddy or lose it. It'll eventually get tired of chasing you and just give up, unless…"

"I'm not liking where you're going with this." Karla said cautiously.

"Well, there's this one big daddy, serial number 621, that's a really nasty son of a bitch." McDonagh said. "He's tougher and nastier and the other big daddies, and unlike them, if you piss off 621, he will hunt you down to the ends of Rapture and he won't stop until you're dead."

That statement made Karla stop and think for a second. Seeing as how terribly lucky she was in the past, it wouldn't be all too hard to imagine that Jason would be said 621. On the bright side, there were at least 620 other big daddies that Jason could be.

"What's so special about the Little Sister to warrant such nasty bodyguards?" Karla asked.

"The Little Sisters are basically the only source of ADAM left." McDonagh continued. "During the war, all of the natural sources of ADAM were destroyed. The Little Sisters were originally meant to be portable ADAM factories, but in order to maintain a steady supply of ADAM in the short term, they were converted into ADAM recyclers, taking inert ADAM from the city dead and converting it back into fully functional ADAM."

"I see." Karla nodded.

"Anyways, if you run into a Little Sister again, just give me a yell." McDonagh said.

"Why, are you interested in them or something?" Karla raised an eyebrow.

"You could say that." McDonagh said before shutting off his radio.

**Hermes District**

"You should be getting close." Maude's voice said as Paccone and Kumi sprinted down the street. "The signal is about fifty meters west of your position."

"On it." Paccone waved Kumi over and they sprinted in the direction Maude directed them to. Already, they could hear gunfire and multiple other sounds associated with battle. They rounded the corner and found a multitude of tangos besieging what looked like some sort of stock exchange building. They were hurling objects at the building at banging away at the wooden boards and debris that barricaded the doors and windows. From the slats in the windows there were multiple flashes of automatic fire that dug into the tangos and kept them some distance back. Already, there were several dozen enemy casualties lying on the ground.

"This is Sergeant Paccone of the UNSC Marine Corps!" Paccone yelled into his radio. "Any survivors, please respond!"

"This is Sergeant Lang!" A rather panicked voice responded. "You can't believe how nice it is to hear a friendly voice!"

"What's your situation?" Paccone said.

"We uh, fortified ourselves in the stock exchange building. There's about eight of us left and we're running low on ammo. Plus, with the number of tangos out there, it's only a matter time till the crunch."

Crunch time referred to the moment where sustained fire could no longer hold back or suppress an advancing enemy force. Usually, in most cases, crunch time ended in three different ways: Either the defending force had to fall back to a new position, stand their ground and engage in melee combat, or be completley overrun. Judging from the state of Lang's forces and the amount of hostiles besieging them, the third case would most likely take place.

"Lang, tell your men to check their fire! There are going to be friendlies in the hot zone!" Paccone yelled.

"Roger that!"

Paccone then patted Kumi on the shoulder to let her know that they were advancing. They both sprinted across the street, making a beeline for the rear of the line of tangos. Already, they could hear the familiar crazed cackling of the freakish inhabitants of the city. While most of them pounded away at the barricades of the stock exchange, a fair number of them were actually armed with firearms and were firing wildly at the building. Tight, controlled bursts from the Marines fired back in response, but the momentum was clearly on the side of the tangos. Fortunately, none of them had considered a flanking attack, and were tightly packed with no idea the misfortune that was about to befall on them. Paccone grabbed a frag grenade from his belt and his eye contact with Kumi silently told her to do the same. He slowly counted down from three with his fingers, pulled the arming pin, and threw the grenade with all his strength. Kumi quickly followed suit and watched as the two metallic orbs bumped and clattered across the shattered pavement. Both grenades exploded, sending a half dozen of the tangos flying in all directions and scattering the rest. It wasn't much effort to finish off the last stragglers, who were still caught off guard. The rest of the tangos, now caught between the defenders in the stock exchange and Paccone and Kumi were quickly annihilated as gunfire from both sides tore them to shreds.

"Clear!" Paccone yelled, pounding on the front barricade.

"Hold your fire!" A voice said from inside. Suddenly, the front doors swung open, revealing eight tired and slightly shell shocked Marines.

"Is this everybody?" Paccone approached Lang and gave a quick glance at the Marines with him. They were all just privates or NCOs, and Karla could not be found among them.

"I'm afraid so." Lang breathed. "We lost most of the squad right after we landed and got ambushed by those things, the Major included."

"Are you sure?" Paccone glared at Lang, silently panicking inside. "Is it confirmed?"

"No." Lang said, slightly put off by Paccone's sudden interest. "She's MIA. We lost track of her and have no idea where she can be. We've tried making radio contact, but it's been a real problem trying to get a long range signal here."

"I see." Paccone calmed down, but still didn't feel any better. Even after this, he was still no closer to finding Karla, or any of the other officers for that matter. It was going to be a tough job keeping the Marines together without any capable officers.

"Sarge, is everything all right?" Kumi asked, looking at Paccone worriedly.

"Of course, what makes you think that?"

"Don't try to hide it Sarge, you're worried about them." Kumi narrowed her eyes. "The Major, Sam, and Leo."

"I might be." Paccone said, trying to dodge the issue.

"Sarge, I know you're worried about them, but you can't let it get to your head." Kumi said sternly. "Right now, you're the closest thing to an officer that these guys can recognize. If they see you crack or do something stupid, they'll lose what little morale they've got left."

"Since when did you suddenly become so worried about the welfare of your superiors?" Paccone cracked a weak grin.

"When I realized that we might not get out of this one alive, Sarge." Kumi said sadly.

**Atlas' Safehouse**

"So what do you need us to do?" Sam asked as she restocked her ammunition.

"Like I told Leo before, I need you to help me save my family." Atlas said sadly. "I'm cut off from them, and you're the only people I can depend on to get them back."

"I don't know about this." Sam confided to Leo. "I think we should really try and find Sarge and the rest of the squad."

"He's helped us get this far." Leo pointed out. "And I seriously doubt we can get very far into the city without his help."

"You're right." Sam conceded. "But there's still something… funny about him."

"But we have no other choice." Leo said, ending the conversation and keying his radio again. "Okay, so what exactly do you need us to do?"

"During the war, I hid my family in the old smuggler hideouts in the city." Atlas explained. "Fontaine and his men were some clever sons of bitches. They took advantage of their position near the sea bed to carve out secret hideouts and bases in the rock. Not even Ryan has managed to find them all. Anyways, their hideout is located under Neptune's Bounty."

"Where's that?" Leo asked.

"Oh, that's right, you're new to Rapture." Atlas sighed. "There should be a map on one of the tables."

"Got it." Sam said, mentally summoning the map with a flick of her wrist, only to be rewarded with the map bouncing off the top of her head. "Ow."

"Honestly." Leo sighed as he snatched the map out of the air and rolled the aged map out on the table in front of him. "Okay, I got it."

"You'll have to go down several levels." Atlas said. "Neptune's Bounty is in the low-class area, so it's near bedrock level. It shouldn't be too hard to miss, what with the signs and all."

"We'll keep that in mind." Leo said.

"Good. Take whatever you need before you leave, and remember, the farther out you get, you'll only run into more splicers. I'm keeping this channel open, so give me a yell if you need me."

"Do you get the feeling that he's not telling us everything?" Sam asked after Leo shut off his radio. "He hasn't been exactly been very forthcoming on what he was up to before we ended up down here."

"What made you so paranoid all of a sudden?" Leo asked.

"Hmmmm, let me think about that." Sam said sarcastically, putting a hand on her chin to make it look like she trying to recall something. "Oh yeah, probably a little after the time I nearly had my face carved off by some crazy plastic surgeon."

"Point." Leo drooped, feeling guilty of forgetting about that incident. "Okay, we'll ask him next time around. How about that?"

"All right." Sam nodded and picked up her sniper. "Well, let's go, I guess we've got a job to do."

"You know." Leo grinned. "You're starting to sound more and more like your sister every day."

"Don't make me punch you." Sam pouted.

**Fleet Hall**

"Shit." Karla cursed as she glanced down at the plaza below her. On the first floor were a knot of splicers milling about, scavenging the trash and debris for anything of use. While she still had ample ammunition, Karla had no intention of wasting it on unnecessary confrontations. Looking across the plaza, Karla caught sight of a tunnel opening near the northwest corner. A quick scan revealed that all the other possible exits were either boarded up or were dead ends. There didn't appear to be any other way out.

Karla took a deep breath and crept towards the stairs. The stairs were constructed in a T formation, which allowed people coming from the first floor to access both sides of the second level. The far end of the stairs was blocked by a caved in ceiling, with breached pipes pouring cold water all over the stairwell and spilling down into the plaza below. In the middle of the T intersection was a trio of splicers digging through the corpse of what looked like a dead big daddy. The splicers had their backs to Karla, and were too busy squabbling with each other to notice her. Fortunately, the sound of their voices and the rushing water from the pipes overhead drowned out whatever sound Karla may have made in her descent. She had already made it halfway down the stairs when she got the ugly feeling that something was behind her. Reluctantly, Karla took a quick glance at the door she entered from, only to recoil in shock when she saw Jason standing above her, visor blinking red. She then saw a trio of numbers stenciled onto Jason's right shoulder. Even from her position below on the stairs, Karla could make out the faded numbers.

621

"Aw hell." Karla sighed.

At that point, Jason caught sight of Karla and roared in rage. The splicers then turned around to investigate, leaving Karla in the unenviable position of being between a group of splicers and an angry big daddy. Thinking fast, Karla sprinted down the stairs, making a beeline straight for the exit. Jason quickly followed, bellowing in anger and firing his nailgun wildly. The three splicers retaliated in desperation, thinking that the big daddy was after them. Two of the splicers beat away at Jason with a wrench and lead pipe while the third fired away with an old revolver. They actually managed to deplete Jason's shields before the big daddy pounded them into the ground. By this time, Karla was already on the first floor and halfway to the tunnel when another pair of splicers appeared from behind a set of pillars, blocking her way. However, Karla was hardly intimidated, since she knew there was a several ton living monstrosity chasing her down. She fired a single burst that blew the first splicer's head open. Then, like a star quarterback, she stiff armed the second splicer and shoved her aside, slamming the deranged woman into the concrete wall before a stray nail from Jason's nailgun impaled her chest and pinned her lifeless body to the wall.

Up ahead, Karla could see a large security door marking the exit. She slid to a stop in front of the door and slammed the access panel, expecting the door to open. However, the door stayed closed, and the access panel started blinking.

WARNING: PRESSURE DIFFERENCE DETECTED. PRESSURE EQUALIZATION IN FIFTEEN SECONDS.

Karla's face paled when she realized that she'd have to wait for fifteen seconds for the door to open. She turned to see Jason charging down the tunnel towards her. She fired her assault rifle at Jason, but the bullets weren't powerful enough to make him even bat an eye. Karla was then forced to dive for cover as Jason sprayed the tunnel with his nailgun. Unfortunately, there wasn't much cover in the tunnel, which meant it was only a matter of time until Jason finally hit his mark. The space in the tunnel was too tight and cramped to risk a frag grenade, so she decided on using one of the few plasma grenades she had managed to procure. Jason was so huge, it would've been a embarrassment for anybody to miss a plasma grenade lob at him. The blue orb soared through the air and instantly bonded to Jason's helmet. Jason, who had never encountered a plasma grenade before, just stared dumbly at the alien explosive for several seconds before it literally exploded in his face. However, the blast served to confuse Jason more than actually hurt him, but it served its purpose in distracting him long enough for the door to open. Without wasting any time, Karla sprinted through the door slamming on the emergency control to instantly seal it. The door managed to close before Jason reached it. Out of breath, Karla collapsed and could only sit there as she heard Jason's heavy fists pounding against the door. Karla's ears rang as metal gauntlets met metal plating, and finally, after several tense seconds, the pounding finally stopped. Karla breathed a sigh of relief. If she didn't find a way to get rid of Jason soon, she was sure that that the monster would be the end of her.

**Tartarus Low Income District**

Williams gaped when he and Tarin finally crossed the threshold of the main city of Rapture into the Tartarus, which quite literally looked like the hell it was named for. Tartarus was a dump, even compared with the rest of the city, which was already suffering from intense damage and neglect. Most of the power in this section of the city was out, raw sewage collected in pools on the floor, most of the surrounding buildings were on the verge of complete failure, and all of the streets and alleys were cramped and tiny, making movement difficult. It also didn't help that Tartarus used to be the slum that housed Rapture's working class, the tiny cogs that composed the bottom rung of Rapture's social ladder. That meant in addition to the horrific conditions down here, Tartarus was also crawling with its former inhabitants: countless crazed splicers and ADAM addicted sociopaths. Dantalion had mentioned that Tartarus suffered from the highest crime rates in Rapture, so the city's founder, Andrew Ryan, placed multiple police units in and around Tartarus to "keep the taint from spreading". The camera Dantalion wanted, the Genescan, was supposed to be kept in one of the police facilities in the area. The camera was developed shortly after the commercialization of plasmids, in order to give police forces the capability of identifying and cataloging plasmid powers. While neither Marine knew why Dantalion would need such a device, they really had no choice but to find it for him, since he was quite literally holding Tarin's life hostage.

"Charming place." Tarin grunted as they passed by what looked like the remains of a police barricade. It was evident that some violent event in the past had completely overrun whatever stood here.

"Damn, it reminds me of the slums and ghettos in the outer colonies." Williams shook his head. "_Especially_ after the Covenant were finished steamrolling them into the ground."

Suddenly, both Marines heard a suspicious scrabbling noise in the darkness. Williams glanced at Tarin, who silently signaled him to move forward. She raised her own rifle to assure Williams that she would keep him covered the whole time. Williams carefully moved toward the sound. He briefly considered switching on his flashlight, but decided against it. He didn't want to risk giving away his position. Creeping forward, Williams could now hear a distinct, low growl, along with an odd, wet sound that he couldn't quite place. He took quick glance behind to confirm that Tarin was still covering him and saw her nod, rifle still raised. Somewhat emboldened, Williams moved forward, painfully aware that the sound was getting louder. When he finally got close enough to see the source of the noise, the sheer horror of what he saw caused him to recoil and cry out in surprise.

The two splicers that had been cannibalizing one of the many corpses littering the ground suddenly looked up and stared at him with their pale, silver eyes. Pieces of warm meat and blood trickled from their mouths and their hands were covered in blood and were clutching handfuls of human innards. They stared at each other for a brief second before the splicers shrieked, prompting Williams to mow down both creatures with his assault rifle.

"What the hell happened?" Tarin asked as she ran in, alarmed at the gunfire.

"Trouble." Williams sighed when he heard more shrieks and shouts in the darkness. Whatever was out there heard the gunfire and it had apparently fired them up. "We're going to need light."

"Got it." Tarin held her hand out and created a large flame around it like a torch. However, the flickering light only served to reveal even more pale, silver eyes staring right at them.

"Oh shit!" Williams gasped, firing his rifle again instinctively.

Tarin likewise reacted, enlarging the flames around her hand and lobbing the fireball at the mass of splicers. The front rank of them immediately combusted like dry tinder, the worn rags they were wearing fueling the flames. The flaming splicers shrieked and dropped the ground in an attempt to put out the flames eating away at their flesh. The rest of the splicers kept their distance, afraid of being ignited themselves. Tarin then sprayed her rifle into the mass of splicers and threw another fireball before yelling, "Williams! Fall back!"

Reloading his rifle, Williams nodded and mad a dash back to the remains of the police barricade. At least that area was slightly more defensible than the alley they were stuck in. He was almost there when he heard Tarin yell in alarm. He turned to see that one of the feral splicers had leapt down from a second story window and knocked Tarin over. She raised her arms to protect herself as the splicer clawed at her, knocking her rifle out of her hands and causing it slide away in the darkness. Williams immediately ran back and struck the splicer in the side of the head with the butt of his rifle. The blow was so hard, Williams felt the splicer's skull cave in and the once human creature fell over. Then, out of pure reflex, Williams grabbed Tarin's collar and started dragging her back toward the barricade. He had no idea whether Tarin was in any condition to get up and move, and his training had taught him always to assume the worst. He did however know beyond a doubt that Tarin was still alive, since he could hear her drawing her pistol and firing at the horde of splicers chasing them.

"You okay?" Williams asked.

"Never felt more alive." Tarin said half jokingly as she reloaded her pistol.

By the time they reached the barricade, the splicer numbers had been considerably thinned. Out of probably fifteen or so splicers, only four of them were still chasing. Williams and Tarin took cover behind the barricade, forcing the splicers to scrabble back into the darkness of the alley. They both kept their weapons trained, ready in case the splicers decided to return. However, nothing came out of the darkness, and both Marines sighed in relief.

"Are you hurt?" Williams said, patting Tarin's chest to check for injuries.

"Stop it!" Tarin batted Williams' hand away, her face reddening.

"Uh, sorry." Williams suddenly realized how awkward the situation had become. However, he was perfectly fine in the knowledge that Tarin wasn't hurt. The fabric of her vest was ripped and torn, and there were rather deep gouges in her ceramic chest plate caused by the splicer's sharp claws, but thankfully the armor was what suffered all the damage. He was about to say something more when Tarin motioned for him to be quiet. They silently waited as they heard footsteps coming from the other side of the barricade.

"Oi, looks like the hobos have been acting up." One voice said rather casually.

"Oh yeah, somebody really did a number on them." A second voice replied. "Looks like somebody showed the little bastards a thing or two."

"Oh bloody hell."

"What?"

It was at this point that Tarin and Williams risked a peek over the barricade. They saw the backs of two splicers wearing police uniforms, a relic of the days when order existed in Rapture. Now the city's defenders had been reduced to very deranged psychotics they had been trained to defend against. The only difference now was the fact that they were much better armed.

"Looks like they got Cordy." The first officer pointed at the partly cannibalized corpse Williams had discovered earlier.

"Never liked him anyways." The second officer cackled. "Looks like he took a few of the bastards with him before he bit it. Good for us."

"Come on, let's get out of here. The fresh dead are sure to draw little sisters, and we all know what they like to drag along with them."

"Yeah, you're right."

As the two splicers stalked off into the darkness, both Tarin and Williams knew that their foray into Tartarus was far from over.


	7. A Tiny Glimmer

"_Tartarus is a complete mess, sir. Crime rates have shot up by almost three hundred percent and my men are completely overwhelmed. Everybody in that section of the city is in Fontaine's pocket, and my men are getting overwhelmed. We need to mobilize all of the reserves, and I think we're going to have to resort to conscripting some of the general population as well. We're also going to need to arm them with combat plasmids if they hope to stand up against Fontaine's men as well. Short of that, the only other solution would be a full scale blockade of the entire district."_

_-Sullivan, Ryan Industries Chief of Security_

Chapter 7: A Tiny Glimmer

**Tartarus**

Tarin remained wary as she and Williams crept down a darkened alleyway as they made their way to the nearest security station. With the dim lighting and tight spaces, it was easy for an ordinary person to feel confined and claustrophobic. Tarin, however, had no such qualms. Growing up on a forested planet, she was used to relative darkness and small space. She was so used to it in fact, that she actually had mild agoraphobia that years of Marine training still hasn't been able to quite erase.

Williams, however, felt very differently about the environment he was in. Even though he had grown up in a city, urban combat was one aspect of war that he felt he could do without. The anxiety that came from wondering if death was around the corner, behind the door, or up the stairs ate away at his nerve. However, he stayed focused, knowing that it was up to him to cover Tarin's back. After all, in a place like this, Splicers could appear out of nowhere.

"I hope your excursion is going well?" Dantalion's annoying cheerful voice buzzed through the radio. "Tartarus does tend to have some…difficulties… in terms of travel."

"We're fine." Williams seethed, still remembering that Dantalion was basically holding Tarin hostage for his twisted agenda.

"Just checking, after all. Some of my previous assistants attempted to change their employer, and suffice to say, it means my failsafe protocols are fully tested and approved according to current testing and experimentation standards!"

Both Tarin and Williams ignored the AI and pressed on. Because she had lost her rifle earlier, Tarin was forced to resort to her sidearm as her primary weapon. Knowing full well that a battle situation here could quickly devolve from a shootout into close quarters combat, Tarin had both her pistol and her combat knife drawn. The hilt of the knife was pressed against the butt of the pistol, which allowed Tarin to quickly and easily transition from either weapon to the other depending on the situation. As she moved forward, she heard something and motioned for Williams to stop.

"What's up?" Williams asked.

"Somebody around the corner." Tarin whispered. She crept forward, keeping a low profile, and peeked around the corner. She saw one security splicer standing guard in front of a crudely barricaded door. "One hostile."

"Should we take him down?"

"Leave him to me, this one's mine." Tarin said. She holstered her pistol and held her knife in a reverse grip before creeping around the corner. She was so close to the splicer, she could hear it breathing. However, she wasn't at a good enough angle to get a clean shot, so she whispered, "Hey! Susie!"

Caught off guard and curious, the splicer instinctively turned to face the source of the voice. Tarin then stood up and swung her arm out, slicing her knife straight through the splicer's throat and severing his trachea and arteries. The splicer gave a short, gurgled sigh and collapsed to the ground.

"Is this the place?" Williams asked as he rounded the corner.

"Should be." Tarin nodded. "See the design? It's different from the other buildings around it. It's newer and more solidly built unlike the shanty houses around it."

"Okay then." Williams kicked the barricaded door open, revealing the dank, cluttered storage closet of the security station. Most of the items here were general supplies like medical equipment and food, but most of it had already been used up. The majority of the space was now taken up by torn, empty boxes and the floor was littered with packing foam and various fluids Williams didn't care to investigate. "I really hope this is the right place."

"Better be." Tarin sighed, peeking out of the closet door. "I don't want to stay in this hellhole any longer than I have to."

Satisfied that the door was clear, Tarin carefully pushed the door open. She made sure to do it slowly as not to make any noise that could give them away. On the other end, she saw what looked like a normal police station, albeit completely demolished and filthy. A few splicers were wandering the desks, but Tarin was sure that there were more tucked away somewhere. She and Williams neither had the time nor the ammo to take on an army of splicers right now.

"We're going in silent." Tarin whispered, pushing the door open quietly. "Follow my lead."

Tarin and Williams silently crept through the room, staying low so that they could conceal themselves behind the desks whenever the splicers looked their way. As they silently stalked through the desks, they came across one splicer who had stumbled across their path. Fortunately, he wasn't facing them, which gave Tarin enough time to clamp her hand over his blistered lips and slit his throat. She kept a firm grip on his body and gently laid it on the ground to prevent any sound from being made.

"Where are we going?" Williams asked, his finger hovering anxiously near the trigger.

"Processing room, right there." Tarin pointed to a door at the far end of the room. "That's the most likely place the camera would be."

"Shit, well I hope it's there."

It took another minute of cautious sneaking before Tarin and Williams were finally able to reach the processing room. After a quietly dispatching the lone splicer prowling the room, Williams closed the door and both Marines were free to relax, for the moment at least. While Tarin carefully searched the room for the camera, Williams took a moment to examine the room and noticed a large pane of reinforced glass set into one of the walls. On the other side of the glass, he could see three separate holding cells, each with a splicer within. Two of the splicers were lying on the ground, and judging by decomposition on their bodies, were that way for quite a while. The last cell's inhabitant was still very much alive, pacing the cell in circles and muttering random, inane gibberish to himself.

"Hey, Williams, focus!" Tarin said sternly. "It'll be a lot easier to find this stupid thing without you not messing around!"

"Right, sorry." Williams bent down to look under the table and smiled. "Aha! Found it!"

"Great." Tarin keyed her radio and activated Dantalion's frequency. "Hey, Dantalion, we have what you want."

"Excellent!" The insane AI chimed. "Bring the item back post haste! We must complete the experiment!"

"If you don't kill us first." Williams muttered.

"Oh yes, and I am morally and contractually bound to inform you that that the splicers in the area are aware of your presence and are incredibly agitated."

"Thanks, but even we figured that part out." Tarin sighed.

"Oh, then I won't have to mention that my sensors have detected large numbers of splicers converging straight to your current location. Well, it seems like you have the situation under control, so please bring back the item intact! Bye!" Dantalion said cheerfully before cutting off the transmission.

"Shit!" Tarin growled as she heard pounding on the door. "The bastard probably tipped them off or something."

"Why would he do that?" Williams flicked the safety on his rifle off.

"Knowing him? Probably just to spite us." Tarin unholstered her pistol and knife just as the door burst open and over a half dozen splicers pushed their way inside.

**Neptune's Bounty**

"You know, you sometimes have to wonder," Sam said as she walked along the wooden pier leading to Neptune's Bounty, the part of the city that supplied Rapture with fresh seafood, "why would the guys who built this place build a whole working pier down here? I mean, the city is _underwater_. Why would they need it?"

"I suppose it's to put people's minds at ease." Leo shrugged. "Being holed up in a confined space like this for such a long time, it probably eats away at your sanity, especially if you've been living on the surface."

"Huh, fat good that did." Sam remarked as she eyed a couple of corpses floating in the dirty water under the pier.

"Okay, my family is holed up in a secret hideout behind the freezers under Neptune's Bounty." Atlas said. "But first you'll have to get through Peach Wilkinson. Ever since the war, he's been a bit… paranoid. Even though I've given the green light, he's not entirely convinced you two can be trusted, so you might have a difficult time getting through."

"Great." Leo shook his head. "More complications."

"Shh." Sam motioned for Leo to be quiet and strained her ears. "You hear that?"

Leo held his breath and tried to ignore all of the white noise around him. Under the creaking of the wooden pier and splashing of the water, Leo could hear the faint chatter of weapons fire. "Oh yeah, I hear it."

Moving forward to investigate, Sam and Leo realized that the source of the fighting was a massive battle between a mob of splicers and a lone big daddy. There were over twenty splicers mercilessly attacking the iron beast with both firearms and melee weapons. Meanwhile, the big daddy, which was wielding a massive sledgehammer in its right hand, was swinging the massive weapon wildly, sending handfuls of splicers flying with every swing. However, that didn't mean the big daddy had the upper hand in this battle. The beast was clearly damaged and/or injured either from the current battle or countless previous ones. There were countless holes and pits in its armor, and Sam could see that its left arm hung limp like a lifeless puppet.

"What do we do?" Leo asked.

"I don't know." Sam couldn't figure out who to side with on this battle.

"Just let it play out. Let the enemy do the work!" Atlas remarked. "Those little sisters carry ADAM, which will help boost your plasmids!"

Even as Atlas said those words, the battle raged on. The big daddy had already slain half of the splicers, but it was already beginning to succumb to its wounds. The beast's movements began to slow, and it wasn't reacting as fast to the splicers' attacks. Finally, one of the splicers rushed the big daddy and slapped a large box onto the big daddy that stuck to its shoulderpad. The splicer then tried to run, but the big daddy caught him by the leg and tossed him at another splicer with enough force to pulverize both assailants. Then, realizing what was going to happen, the big daddy rushed the remaining splicers, reaching their ranks just as the bomb attached to it exploded, incinerating it along with the rest of the splicers.

"I think that's it." Leo said, shocked at the pointless outcome of the battle.

With the threat apparently over, Sam and Leo sprinted to the battle site, careful to avoid the charred and mangled corpses of the splicers. Leo knelt down to examine the smoldering corpse of the big daddy. He was somewhat amazed that the thing was still largely intact, or at least he armor was. However, there was no more intelligence at the controls, since the being inside the hideous suit of armor was clearly dead.

"Mr. Bubbles!"

Leo and Sam turned surprise to see what looked like a little sister running toward the corpse of the big daddy. Before they could react, the little sister was already clinging to the dead big daddy and wailing. Unfortunately, Sam and Leo were too distracted by the sight to realize that one of the splicers was still alive…

**Maintenance Hall 59C**

Karla slid down against the wall, trying to catch her breath as she closed the maintenance door shut. On the other side, she could hear the loud thuds of Jason's boots ringing on the steel deck plates outside. Karla had lost count of how many times she had to elude the damn thing. Fortunately, McDonagh had been invaluable in helping her avoid Jason.

"Hey, thanks for the help there." Karla said in her radio.

"No problem, but it turns out I need a bit of your help now." McDonagh responded. "Just go down the hall and take the first right."

Curious as to what exactly McDonagh needed her for, Karla followed his instructions and proceeded down the maintenance hall where he saw the old man working on a door control.

"Hey there, Old Man." Karla said. "What's gone wrong this time?" 

"Major! Just in time!" McDonagh turned from his work. "I need your help to do some rather morally questionable work."

"What?" Karla raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Something you're not telling me?"

"I thought I'd just tell you this up front so you wouldn't shoot me." McDonagh sighed. "We've got to terminate a little sister."

"That's a pretty powerful word you're using there, old man." Karla narrowed her eyes and frowned. "What are you up to?"

"You see, right now, the little sisters are the root of Rapture's problems." McDonagh sighed and his shoulders drooped. "Their only purpose is to recycle inert ADAM from the dead bodies littered around the city. I don't know why they still keep doing this, since there's nobody left to control them, but I assume they're just 'programmed' that way. Anyways, they recycle the inert ADAM and it eventually leaks its way back into the general population, which keeps the wheels of power and corruption turning."

"Well, what do you propose we do about it?"

"I figured out a way… but it's not pretty." McDonagh grimaced, further wrinkling his aged face. "There's this parasite in their stomachs that does all the actual work. I've figured out how to extract it from the little sister…"

"I feel a 'but' coming…" Karla said, biting her lip.

"…but it kills the little sister in the process."

Now _that_ got Karla's attention. Killing kids was not something Karla ever intended to do, and the mere thought of it made her sick.

"That's crazy!"

"Believe me, I thought the same thing, but once you start seeing what they do every day, you'll begin to think that death may be a blessing for those poor things." McDonagh said sadly. "I've tried everything else, but this is the only way."

"And what do you need me to do?" Karla said, already extremely reluctant to go through with this plan.

"I just need you to help me get rid of the big daddy guarding the little sister." McDonagh said. "So far, I've had to take on little sisters I managed to catch alone, pick off already weakened big daddies, or just plain outsmart them, but with your military background and my know-how, we can make this go on a lot faster."

"Assuming that I go along with it." Karla said harshly.

"I never said you had to." McDonagh responded. "But if we want to get that ADAM out of the hands of the splicers, then there's no other way."

**Tartarus**

Tarin grunted in surprise as three splicers piled on top of her, knocking her weapons out of her hands. Shoved onto her back, Tarin instinctively grabbed the closest splicer's head with both her hands and gave a hard jerk, twisting the thing's neck and snapping its spinal cord. With a gurgle, the splicer spasmed and fell limp only to be shoved aside by another splicer. Tarin quickly elbowed the splicer in the face and scrambled to pick up anything that could be used as a weapon. Her hand reached and grabbed what she believed was her knife and swung it around, stabbing the weapon straight into the splicer's neck. However, Tarin was surprised to see that it wasn't her knife she was holding, but an old, broken chair leg. The rotten piece of wood splintered and fragmented, shoving wooden shards straight into the splicer's throat. Instead of the intended result of the splicer suffering a quick, clean death, the splicer instead clawed at its perforated throat, coughing and gagging itself to death.

Meanwhile, Williams was having problems of his own. Four splicers closed in on his, each armed and craving blood. Thinking fast, Williams held his arm out and unleashed as much icy fury his plasmid would allow him. His effort was partly successfull, freezing two splicers and forming a wall of ice over the door, blocking any more splicers from entering. That still left two more splicers he had to deal with, though. He fired a rifle burst into the closest splicer, taking him down with three shots to the chest. The next splicer then raised an old submachine gun and let it fire on full automatic, sending bullets flying all over the room. Williams instinctively dropped to the floor, arm outstretched. He intended to send another freezing blast to disable the splicer, but the attack manifested as an ice lance instead. The shard of ice speared straight into the splicer's knee, causing him to scream in pain and collapse.

"Need some help here!" Tarin gasped as she tried to fight off the last splicer, who had an iron grip around her throat. Williams quickly sprinted over and stuck the splicer in the skull with the butt of rifle with a sickening _crunch_. The splicer then fell limp. Tarin pushed the dead splicer off of her, gagging and coughing at the horrendous stench emanating from the splicer that she had inadvertently breathed in.

"Are you okay?" Williams asked, helping Tarin up to her feet.

"Yeah." Tarin coughed and picked up her knife and pistol. "We should get out of here."

"Uhh, there might be a bit of a problem with that." Williams pointed to the door, which was blocked off by a wall of ice. On the other end, he and Tarin could clearly see the silhouettes of people banging and scratching at the ice. It wasn't that much of a stretch to figure that those people probably weren't friendly.

"Well shit, that's a problem." Tarin frowned, picking up one of the dropped submachine guns.

"Not exactly." Williams pointed to the observation window. "That's our way out."

"Good point." Tarin grinned and reached into one of her vest pockets to grab a small C7 charge. She slapped the shaped charge against the window and set the timer for five seconds. "Fire in the hole!"

Williams kicked the table over and both he and Tarin took cover behind it as the C7 charge exploded, shattering the reinforced glass and knocking the splicers on the other side down. Tarin then ran forward, vaulted through the window cavity, and placed another charge on one of the door locks before scrambling back into cover. The small charge blew the cell door open and both Marines sprinted for the exit.

"Did you remember the camera?" Tarin asked as they ran down the hall.

"Shit!" Williams cursed as he slid to a halt and ran back to the observation room.

Tarin could only stand there and shake her head, "_Honestly_."

**Neptune's Bounty**

Both Leo and Sam were startled as they heard a loud gunshot. They turned to see the splicer behind them fall over with a clean gunshot through the head. Before they could do anything else, they heard an unfamiliar and strangely accented voice call out from above them.

"You two! Move any closer to the little one and you'll join that splicer!"

Sam and Leo looked up to see a middle aged woman wearing a worn doctor's coat pointing a rather old, but still very lethal, revolver at them.

"Don't mind them, Doctor, they just need some ADAM to get along." Atlas said. Apparently, the woman had a radio of her own and could hear Atlas speaking as well.

"Damn you, Atlas, I knew you would try and get these poor souls to do your bidding." The woman growled. "He promised you ADAM if you managed to take one of these poor children."

"They aren't children anymore, Doctor. You of all people should know that." Atlas retorted.

"They'll always be _my_ children." The woman spat and then looked down at Sam and Leo. "He didn't actually tell you_ how_ you would be getting the ADAM, did he?"

Sam and Leo looked at each other and shook their heads.

"If you want the ADAM these little ones carry, then you'll have to _kill_ them." The woman said. The words struck Sam and Leo like a sledgehammer.

"Atlas, is this true?" Leo asked.

"Yes." There was no hint of regret or hesitation in Atlas' voice. "It's the only source of ADAM left in this city."

"If you need the ADAM that badly, there _is_ another way." The woman threw a plasmid vial in the air.

Sam effortlessly caught the vial and examined it. "What is this?"

"An alternative." The woman said before holstering her revolver. "You won't get as much ADAM, but I'll try and compensate you for your trouble in any way I can."

"Don't listen to her." Atlas cautioned. "You'll need all the ADAM you can get, and it won't help if you waste it on the word of a washed up scientist."

Sam took one more look at the little sister. There was something about the thing that was both human and inhuman. At first glance, Sam's instinctual reaction was fear and revulsion. The pallid, seemingly rotted skin and glowing amber eyes was enough to put off even the most hardened Marine. However, at closer inspection, anybody would realize that under that pale skin was just a scared little girl.

"I'm sorry Atlas, but I'm going to have to take the Doctor's word on this one." Sam said.

"Fine, have it your way." Atlas sighed.

"Okay, so how does this work?" Sam asked, holding the vial in the air.

"You don't know?" The woman said, slightly confused. "It works just like any other plasmid. Just inject it and hold your hand over the little one's head."

"Okay then." Sam tossed the vial to Leo. "You do it then."

"Me?" Leo gasped.

"I don't know about you, but I've had enough needles for one day."

"Alright." Leo sighed and flinched as he injected the plasmid. Though he didn't pass out, he did feel some momentary discomfort as he waited for the plasmid to take effect. He then slowly made his way to the little sister, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. He then took his head and pressed it against her head. His hand suddenly began to react, glowing a bright pink which slowly spread to the little sister's forehead. There was then a bright flash of light, forcing Sam and Leo to look away for a second. When they looked back, they saw a perfectly normal girl standing where the little sister once did. The girl blinked several times, looked at her hands, and did something nobody expect.

She smiled.

"Thank you!" The girl said and dug into the pocket of her gown and brought out several vials of a glowing red substance. "Here, you can have this. I don't need it anymore!"

With that, the girl skipped off into the darkness, climbing into one of the many small tubes littered throughout the city walls.

"You see?" The woman smiled. "There's still a glimmer of hope in this dark city."

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Sam asked.

"Tenebaum. Doctor Tenebaum."

**Maintenance Hall 43A**

Karla toed the smoking body of the big daddy cautiously, and to confirm it was dead, pumped an entire rifle clip into the dead beast. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't hard taking down a big daddy, as long as you were horribly prepared. It was a good thing that she had the time to set up a series of C7 tripwires along the hallway to blow the big daddy to pieces before it could pose a threat. Even though the little sister had been caught in the blast, McDonagh told her not to worry, since the huge amount of concentrated ADAM in their bodies effectively made the girls immortal.

"Mr. Bubbles!" The little sister cried, sobbing over the shattered, burnt husk of the big daddy. Her skin was cut an burned as she pressed against the beast's charred, broken armor, but her advanced cell regeneration made the wounds heal just as quickly as they were inflicted.

"Now it's time for the ugly part." McDonagh sighed, approaching the little sister.

Even when Karla looked away, she could still hear the screaming. She had heard many terrible sounds in her lifetime. She had heard various explosions, the shriek of gunfire, the cries of the wounded, the cries of shellshocked soldiers for their mothers, and so many other traumatizing things. However, this was the most inhuman, soul crushing sound she had ever heard, which made her stomach turn and her head hurt. Then, the most painful moment came when the screaming finally stopped.

"It's done." McDonagh said, suddenly extremely tired. In his hands, he held a squirming worm-like creature which he then shoved into a container.

However, all Karla could think about was how the hell she would escape war crime charges if her superiors found out about this. Hell, she didn't even know whether she would contest those charges at all if they ever surfaced.

"Goddamnit." Karla growled. Rapture certainly was one really fucked up city.


	8. Just Takes Your Breath Away

"_Well, one of the first issues we had to tackle when building Rapture was the most obvious one: How do we supply enough air to keep an underwater city alive? Though we have advanced life support systems that can supply air to entire space stations, Ryan wanted something to help relieve the strain on the system, so he approached me, an obscure botanist in a dead end lab with crazy ideas. With some of his money and resources, I managed to bioengineer trees and plants that could recycle oxygen with an efficiency that could match any life support system. But that wasn't even close to my greatest achievement…"_

_-Professor Julie Langford_

Chapter 8: Just Takes Your Breath Away

**Marine HQ**

Kumi never thought that a grim, boarded up building with gun barrels sticking out of the barricaded windows and doors would be such a relaxing sight. After the freakish and brutal fighting of the day, the makeshift Marine HQ with its roughshod but solid defenses was the most welcome sanctuary any Marine would love.

"Welcome back, Sergeant!" Maude said as he opened the front doors.

"Good to see you, Maude." Paccone sighed, suddenly incredibly tired. "Did you get anything else off the radio?"

"No sir, I'm sorry." Maude shook his head.

"Damn." Paccone cursed under his breath. "Anyways, why don't you show Sergeant Lang and his men the fine amenities this facility has to offer."

"Yes sir."

As Maude and Lang marched into the fortified building, Paccone waited outside for a few more minutes until two more figures appeared from the shadows. It was Kumi and one of Lang's men, Meryn. Paccone had them take up the rear in order to throw off any possible stalkers.

"Any trouble?" Paccone asked, closing the door behind him as they retreated into the makeshift fortification.

"A couple of the bastards tried to tail us." Meryn sighed. "We took them out pretty easily, so I'm sure we won't be having company any time soon."

"Good." Paccone nodded. "Kumi, round the rest of the sergeants. Now that we've got some semblance of order, we have to figure out what to do next."

**Tartarus**

"They're still following us!" Williams panted as he and Tarin bolted down the dark street. Behind them, Williams could hear all sorts of noise, from bloodthirsty growls to the occasional bark of gunfire.

"They must have ungodly stamina or something." Tarin panted. Even when trained to the peak of physical performance, Marines had their limits, and several minutes of sustained sprinting and fighting had left her and Williams completely drained. The Splicers, however, seemed not have suffered from such a handicap and were still pressing the chase.

"Hmmm, I see you're in a tight spot there!" Dantalion giggled.

"Of course we are!" Tarin shouted. "Can you help us?"

"Well, certainly, but where's the fun in that?" Dantalion said cheerfully. "I'm interested to see just how far you can get before the splicers catch up to you!"

"Why the hell would you do that?" Williams asked, firing a short burst behind himself to keep the splicers back.

"Because I can!" Dantalion proclaimed loudly. "Where's the fun in the experiment if I end it now?"

"Don't you want your precious little camera?" Tarin said, waving the camera in the air to make sure that Dantalion could see it.

"Hmmmm, you bring up a good point." Dantalion said, "It's such a quandary, but I suppose something must take precedence. Assistance will arrive shortly."

With their morale boosted somewhat, Tarin and Williams took cover behind a deserted car and fired at the splicers, keeping them at bay until Dantalion could do whatever he was doing. Unfortunately, Dantalion's voice quickly returned with bad news.

"Well, it looks like your trials aren't over yet!" He said with a bit of gleeful expectation. "It appears the sector's automated defense grid is damaged, which means I can't take advantage of it to assist you. You will have to activate the system manually if you wish to have some backup."

"Sometimes, I think you do this shit on purpose." Tarin growled. "Where the hell is it?"

"Not far. Just a few hundred meters west of your position."

With that, Tarin's HUD pinged as Dantalion transmitted the coordinates. Just like Dantalion said, the nav marker was about two hundred meters west, which was a lot of ground to cover in a combat situation. Tarin took a quick glance in the direction of the marker, and saw that the path there was mostly narrow alleys snaking around and through several large buildings. Such a small, confined space would make it difficult for a large pack of splicers to follow while just a pair of individuals like Tarin and Williams could maneuver through it easily. The only issue that Tarin could think of was the potential for additional hostiles to be hidden in those alleys. If there were more of those feral splicers hiding in there, it would make things far more difficult.

"Williams, we're heading west!" Tarin pointed to the nav marker.

Williams nodded and fired a long burst of rifle fire to suppress the splicers long enough for Tarin to reach the relative safety of the alley. Williams then sprinted for the alley. Unfortunately, since Tarin was only armed with her pistol, it was much more difficult for her to suppress the splicers, meaning that they started to advance when the whither hail of fire was significantly reduced. In order to buy himself some more time, Williams threw a thin layer of ice on the pavement behind him, causing splicers attempting to follow to slip and tumble over. As their pursuers attempted to get back on their feet, Williams and Tarin managed to make their escape into the alley. However, it wasn't long until they ran into what they feared the most.

All around them in the darkness, the beady, blank eyes of the feral splicers glinted like faint stars…

**Maintenance Hall 44**

It took the screams of two more little sisters to finally convince Karla that she would be better off doing something else with her time. Even though McDonagh had insisted that death was the best thing for these pitiful, mutated creatures, there was an odd, familiar quality to them that made Karla sick to her stomach whenever she thought about them. She couldn't quite place what it was, but it bothered her on a level ate away at her psyche more effectively than the isolation and dangers of Rapture.

"I'm sorry old man, but I don't think I'm cut out for this sort of work." Karla sighed as she tried not to look at what was left of the little sister he had harvested.

"I know, I never expected you to get used to it, and maybe that's what makes you a better person than us in Rapture could ever be." McDonagh said and grinned sadly. "Ironic, eh? Rapture was supposed to be the pinnacle of human development, and here we are, skulking the back alleys of the city killing the remnants of innocent girls."

"That's an interesting way to put it." Karla loaded her rifle and checked her gear. "Like I said before, what's the quickest way out of this hellhole?"

"There's the sub pen, but Ryan had that locked down years ago. Like I said before, the only way you're getting out of here is to take control of Rapture's primary systems, and the only way to do that is to obtain Ryan's genetic key."

"You make it sound incredibly easy."

"It isn't." McDonagh shook his head. "You'll have to make your way to the center of the city to Ryan's headquarters. Most of the routes there are either destroyed, blocked off, or infested with splicers."

"Any suggestions then?" Karla asked.

"There is one way." McDonagh nodded. "You'll have to pass through Arcadia."

**Neptune's Bounty**

"You shouldn't put all your trust into Doctor Tenebaum." Atlas said cautiously. "There's more to the woman that you don't know-"

"-like how much we know about you." Sam retorted. "How can we trust you any more than her?"

"That's a good point." Altas conceded.

"So where exactly in this place are we supposed to find your family?" Leo asked.

"They're in the deepest part of Neptune's Bounty." Atlas explained. "At the bedrock level. You'll have to make your way north to the main fisheries and get down into the freezers. Getting there may be a bit tough because of the splicers wandering the area, but you'll also have to be careful of Peach Wilkins."

"Who's he?" Sam asked.

"One of the most violent and messed up individuals you'll meet down there. He used to be one of Fontaine's enforcers, but the responsibilities of his occupation proved too much and he eventually cracked under the pressure. He got paranoid and was afraid everybody was out to get him and eventually sold Fontaine out to Ryan out of fear for his own life. He was a certified nutjob before Rapture went to hell, and now, ironically enough, his paranoia is basically what keeps him alive these days."

"Is he a threat?" Leo asked, carefully checking around the corner for more splicers.

"It's pretty likely. I've already contacted him and vouched for you two, but you'll never know what he'll do.

"Wonderful."

**Arcadia**

Karla was sure that Arcadia was once a beautiful place. Everywhere she looked, she could imagine a lush, vibrant forest full of life bordered by well trimmed gardens with flowers and colors of every kind. That vibrant and colorful feel was still there, but there was something odd and out of place. Karla quickly realized that without anybody left to care for them, the plants had grown wild like stray pets. The trees, yearning for the sky, and with nobody to trim their branches, grew out, pressing against the glass ceiling holding back the infinite sea beyond. Flowers and brush covered everything, even the paths that snaked through the giant greenhouse. However, that didn't mean Karla was going to let her guard down anytime soon. This place also reminded her of the thick forests and jungles of countless worlds where the most savage of guerilla warfare was waged. This was certainly no place for a person to be wandering around alone. She kept a wary eye on the dark brush around her as she carefully made her way to the exit. However, before she reached the security door leading to the next section of the city, emergency lights activated and a loud, amplified voice echoed throughout Arcadia.

"I thought I had left those government parasites behind me. I thought I left those Socialist Altruists with their 'five year plans' and 'economic reforms'. But just as your fools in the UN caved into the demands of the parasites, you scavengers crawl here to suck whatever you can find dry. Who sent you, the government pigs or the ONI jackals? No matter. I'm not some giddy socialite that can be pushed around by government muscle."

With that, Karla heard something odd in the background. However, she quickly put the odd hissing sound the changing odor in the eye together into one single terrifying conclusion.

Gas.

Suffering from a brief panic attack, Karla quickly reverted to her training and pulled her gas mask from her belt. She pulled it over her face and made sure that it was on straight. Her armor, detecting the presence of airborne chemicals, just now transmitted a timely alert to Karla's HUD and automatically began preparations for full nuclear, biological, and chemical protection. Several parts of the armor began to excrete a special paste meant to plug up any possible holes or tears in the armor while vulnerable areas like the sleeve and pants cuffs and the collar tightened to make the armor as airtight as possible. The breather unit built into the gas mask then purged itself and began supplying what was hopefully clean, filtered air to the wearer. Even as this process continued, the voice continued talking in its signature self righteous tone.

"On the surface, I once bought a forest. The parasites claimed that the land belonged to God, and that I establish a public park there. Why? So that the rabble could stand slack-jawed under the canopy and pretend that it was paradise earned. When Congress moved to nationalize my forest, I burnt it to the ground. God did not plant the seeds of this Arcadia. I did."

As the thick yellow gas clouded the air, Karla could see that it was having a visible effect on the plant life around her. Everything that was remotely plant-like began to wither and die, reducing the verdant to green forests to a dried, twisted parody of one. Not wanting to stay here any longer, Karla made her way to the door only to find that it was locked.

"It's no use, you're not going to get through that door now." McDonagh's alarmed voice said through the radio. "Arcadia is Rapture's primary source of oxygen. With the plants dead, the city's automatically been locked down. There's no way past that door unless you circumvent the lockdown."

"How do I do that?" Karla asked, wiping disgusting residue off her visor.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to resort to this." McDonagh muttered. "There's a person living down in Arcadia, Julie Langford. She's a bit of a recluse, but she's the only person here who can help us now."

"Who is she?"

"Professor Langford used to be Ryan Industries' top botanist." McDonagh explained. "She was responsible for building Arcadia and growing the plants in it. She was a nice lass, but ultimately a greedy hag. When Ryan proposed privatizing Arcadia and turning the oxygen it produced into a commodity, she jumped aboard without a second thought. When the war broke out, her only concern was the plants in Arcadia and did her best to keep it safe. Fortunately for her, neither side was interested in destroying the place, so she now spends her time working in her lab trying to concoct some new sort of plant to add to her collection."

"Sounds like yet another wonderful person." Karla said jokingly. "Where can I find her?"

"Her lab's a few hundred meters west of your position." McDonagh replied. "You can't miss it."

**Neptune's Bounty**

Sam and Leo snapped to attention when warning sirens blared throughout the city. Unsure of what was happening, Leo keyed his radio and asked, "Atlas! What the hell is going on?"

"That bastard Ryan's gone and destroyed Arcadia!" Atlas exclaimed. "It is- I mean- was Rapture's primary source of oxygen. Without it, the city's gone into automatic lockdown!"

"What does that mean for us?" Leo said, gripping his rifle tighter.

"Don't worry. Fontaine's transport system bypasses Rapture's official transportation network, so you may be able to find a way around the lockdown."

"I don't like the lack of confidence in your voice." Sam said warily.

"Well, you can't trust anything in Rapture." Atlas replied bitterly.

"Come on, we might as well keep going." Leo said. "The fishery shouldn't be too far."

"Wait." Sam pointed to the other side of the pier.

Leo turned to see what Sam was so interested in, and was surprised to see another big daddy/little sister pair. It was like some sort of twisted version of the Covenant Hunter pairs that he had seen. They were pretty much inseparable and whenever Leo saw one of them, the other would not be very far away. However, this time, Leo noticed that this big daddy differed from the other one. This big daddy seemed to have lighter armor and a smaller visor, and instead of a drill, this big daddy was armed with an old rivet gun that looked to be as deadly as any modern firearm. Beside it strolled the little sister, who had that typical pallid and freakish appearance.

"Sam… what are you planning?" Leo asked, a pit forming in his stomach.

"We should free that little sister." Sam said.

"That's a bad idea." Atlas warned.

"Yeah, well, everybody seems to be getting those." Sam retorted.

"Wait a second here." Leo cut in. "I'm all for being the humanitarian, but do you at least have a plan on _how_ we do that? Do you remember what the first big daddy we saw was capable of?"

"Yeah, well, I was hoping you'd come up with a way to get rid of it." Sam said abashedly.

"Wonderful." Leo sighed.

**Tartarus**

By the time Tarin and Williams had fought their way through the apartment block, they were already on their last legs. Getting away from the former law enforcement splicers was stressful enough, but having to deal with the feral ones proved to be several times worse. There were countless times where they would be ambushed by entire packs of them from every conceivable direction. Before they were even halfway through, both Tarin and Williams had expended all of their ammunition and were forced to fight off the feral splicers with their plasmids and through hand to hand combat. Tarin used a combination of her combat knife and fire plasmid while Williams had to resort to his ice plasmid and a monkey wrench he had just happened to pick up from the ground.

"My my my, that was an interesting battle!" Dantalion cheered. "I was absolutely sure that you wouldn't be able to make it, but I was proven wrong! Oh how I love unexpected results!"

Tarin and Williams ignored the mad AI's rambling, as both of them were still focused on reaching their objective. They finally found the security console, which unfortunately looked inactive and possibly damaged.

"Um, we might have a problem here." Tarin said.

"Oh dear, that does seem like a very large problem." Dantlion agreed. "Perhaps you should use the exit nearby."

"You're kidding me." Tarin gaped.

"Wait, I didn't mention this before? How silly of me! It's just a few meters north!" Dantalion said happily.

"You…" Tarin shook her head and made her way to the door. However, before she and Williams could reach it, warning sirens blared and emergency lights activated. Ignoring those, Tarin tried to open the door, but it stubbornly stayed shut.

"Well, this is certainly inconvenient." Dantalion mused. "The city has just entered lockdown mode, which means you're effectively stuck in this sector of city, at least until the lockdown is called off."

"You seriously have to be kidding me." Williams shook his head.

"I am a scientist! I never kid!" Dantalion proclaimed. "In either case, it looks like you'll just have to fix the security console."

"And how do we do that?"

"Well I'll tell you how to do it, of course! It's such an obvious answer!"

"I've never been good with all that technical stuff." Tarin said. "I'll hold them off until you can get that thing fixed."

With that, Tarin unsheathed her knife and disappeared, making her way back to where they entered from.

"Okay, so what do I have to do?" Williams asked, popping open the security console's maintenance panel.

"Well, have you ever played Pipe Dream? It sort of goes like that…"

**Neptune's Bounty**

"So you remember what to do, right?" Sam asked as she flipped the safety switch off on her rifle.

"Yes." Leo nodded. "_I'm _the one who came up with the plan."

"Well yeah, but I'm sort of getting tired of you saying…"

"We've only got one shot at this, so we have to make it good."

"There you go again." Sam sighed.

"Quiet." Leo held his hand up and glanced through his binoculars. "They're coming."

Like clockwork, the big daddy and the little sister it accompanied wandered onto the artificial pier, scouting for any fresh corpses. Sam and Leo had laid the corpses of a trio of splicers that had ambushed earlier as bait. The little sister would be unable to ignore the sources of unrefined ADAM and stop to harvest it, putting her right were Sam and Leo wanted her.

"Wait for it…" Leo whispered as he tracked the big daddy's position. "Now!"

Sam calmly exhaled and fired. The high velocity sniper round shot through the air and shattered the steel pulley that kept a large crate of rotting fish suspended above the ground. Without anything to hold it up, the crate succumbed to gravity and dropped right on top of the big daddy. The downward force of the crate and the weight of the big daddy was enough to overcome the decaying wooden pier and the big daddy was sent hurtling down into the sandy water below. Immediately, Leo sprinted from his position towards the hole in the pier. In his hands, he was carrying a satchel charge packed with enough C7 explosive to blow a Scorpion tank sky high. He deftly pulled the arming pin and dropped the satchel down the hole right on top of the immobilized big daddy. However, immobilized didn't necessarily mean harmless, and the big daddy proved just that by roaring in rage and firing its rivet gun wildly in the air. Leo ran as high velocity rivets punched through the wooden decking around him. He kept running, snatching the little sister as he ran and began mentally counting down the timer in the satchel charge. As he ran for cover, the little sister screamed and struggled, throwing a flurry of ineffectual kicks and punches and at some points even tried to bite him. However, Leo kept going and took cover just as the C7 charges exploded. Leo instinctively shielded the little sister from the explosion and felt wooden splinters, armor scraps, and what Leo feared was seared flesh bouncing off of his armor.

"_Let go!_" The little sister squealed in panic. "Where's Mr. Bubbles?!"

"Hey, hold still!" Leo grunted as he concentrated, trying to activate the specialized plasmid Tenebaum had given him earlier. A pink glow briefly enveloped the little sister, which seemed to magically wash away her pallid complexion and glowing eyes.

"Thank you, mister!" The little sister smiled. She dropped several ADAM vials and then disappeared.

"You truly do possess a rare sincerity to others." Tenebaum mused over the radio. "As always, one cannot let such altruism to go unrewarded. A little one will arrive shortly to deliver some very special presents."

Moments after the transmission, Sam and Leo heard an audible _thud_ behind them. They both turned to see a little sister scamper out of sight, leaving behind a rather adorable looking teddy bear.

"Awww, that's cute." Sam smiled as she picked up the bear.

"I was kind of hoping for something more… helpful." Leo shook his head.

"Sheesh Leo, haven't you ever learned? What's most important is found on the inside." Sam shook her head and opened the zipper on the back of the bear. As she drew her hand out, Leo could see several vials of ADAM and what looked like new plasmids.

"You can use the ADAM to help your body accommodate more plasmids, as well as increase the power of your existing ones." Tenebaum explained. "The ADAM you've collected already should be enough to let you have two plasmids each as well as a modest power boost."

"Yeah, well what exactly do these plasmids do?" Leo asked curiously, picking up a bright orange vial.

"I've included a fire plasmid in the package. It's very valuable and one of the most potent combat plasmids in Rapture, and should be useful in the freezers deeper into Neptune's Bounty. The second plasmid is something of my own design. It lets you excrete enzymes that fool the big daddies into thinking you are a little one, and they will protect you just us ferociously."

"Nice." Sam grinned, picking up the greenish looking vial. "That sounds pretty useful."

"But be warned." Tenebaum said cautiously. "Even with plasmids, the dangers in Rapture are still great. There are enemies and threats in all shapes in sizes. Be prepared for _anything_, young travelers."

**Arcadia**

"Who's there!?" The ancient speakerphone crackled with ear piercing static. Karla winced at the sound and edged forward towards the security door. Over the door, Karla could see a surveillance camera tracking her every move. She moved closer to the speakerphone, assuming that it was two-way and spoke into it.

"Professor Langford?" She asked.

"What business do you have with me?" Langford said, slightly gruff and annoyed.

"I need your help to get out of here." Karla replied. "I was told that you could help me."

"Just take the door out, you simpleton." Langford said absentmindedly. "I don't have time to give you directions."

"Have you tried looking out the window lately?" Karla said, putting a rather nasty edge in her voice. "Getting out isn't as easy as you say it is."

"What? What are you talking abou- oh, that bastard!" Langford shouted angrily. After a few more angry curses, she continued, "Alright, I believe we can help each other here. Come in."

With that, the security door creaked open, moaning with age and disuse. Karla stepped through into what immediately reminded her of a schoolhouse biology lab. The floors and tables were lined with non-corrosive and stain resistant tile, with a rainbow of scientific equipment and research. Aside from the lab equipment, Karla acutely noticed how _empty_ the place was. There were no scientists, or research assistants, or even the random civilian or two. The only forms of life Karla could see were the lifeless, programmed movements of the security cameras and sentry turrets planted at strategic defensive locations. This Professor Langford must have spent all this time in her lab _alone_, with nothing but her plants and her research to keep her company. No wonder why she seemed to be so cranky, if not a little bit insane.

Karla pressed on, passing a room where a pipe had burst and water was leaking in from the ceiling, flooding the lower level pit in the middle of the room. Farther in, she passed several windows that presented the glorious vista of the ocean outside, which unfortunately looked more inviting than the city itself. Finally, after scaling a flight of stairs, Karla reached the final room, which was sealed off by a reinforced door and glass. Inside, she saw an aged and slightly disfigured woman working furiously on some unknown experiment. It took the woman several seconds to realize Karla was there when she finally stopped working and turned to face her.

"So, you're the newcomer everybody's been buzzing about." Langford mused. "I have to say, you weren't exactly what I was expecting."

"Yeah, well I've been getting that same feeling a lot recently." Karla growled and pointed at the glass separating them. "Any reason for the separation?"

"Just a precaution. You can never trust anything in Rapture anymore." Langford sighed.

"Are you going to help me or not?" Karla was tired of idle chat and just wanted to get the hell out of here.

"You know," Langford said as she turned away and returned to her experiments, "I grew Arcadia. I was there when every plant was just a seed and a few strands of modified DNA. You can say that I am Arcadia's mother. It's quite ironic, given my past profession."

"Uh huh." Karla nodded impatiently.

"I used to be a lot like you, a government dog doing whatever she was told." Langford grinned. "I was a botanist, but instead of studying plants, I was devising the most efficient ways to kill them. There used to be a great fear in those days that agriworlds like Harvest would rethink their loyalty to Earth and withhold their crops, or worse, supply them to its enemies. I was one of many scientists tasked with inventing a method to destroy those crops. We succeeded magnificently by creating Compound Delta Two Sixty, a chemical that could instantly kill any organic plant matter it contacted. Used to be that it could only be transmitted in liquid form, but _I _found a way to make it airborne. You should have some experience with it. It's what's killing Arcadia outside."

Karla blinked and glanced at her gas mask.

"Oh, it was a fortunate idea to carry that with you too." Langford said, anticipating what Karla was thinking. "Though specifically designed to kill plants, exposure to significant amounts of Delta Two Sixty _can_ prove to be lethal."

"So what do we do about this?" Karla asked.

"Well, there is that one compound…"

"What is it?"

"The Lazarus Vector." Langford said with nostalgia and pride. "My greatest achievement that will never to known to anybody outside this ruined city."

"What exactly does it do?"

"All my life, I've been destroying plants." Langford said sadly. "But with the Lazarus Vector, I found out how to _bring them back to life_."

The plan then suddenly clicked in Karla's head. "We can use it to revive Arcadia and cancel the lockdown!"

"Exactly." Langford nodded. "The problem is, I'm missing several key components, so I'll need you to go and obtain them."

"Really now…" Karla felt a pit growing in her stomach.

"There's only a few ingredients you need to obtain, but they should be easy enough to find." Langford slipped a piece of paper into a pneumatic tube that transported to Karla's side of the glass. "That should be the list ingredients I need and the locations of where to find them."

Karla suddenly wondered what happened to reduce her from a Marine Corps Major to a simple delivery girl.

**Neptune's Bounty**

"Is this it?" Sam asked as she walked up to the massive freezer door.

"Yeah. Wilkins should be right behind it." Atlas confirmed.

Leo pounded on the door and waited as he heard a faint scuttling behind it. Suddenly, an observation slat in the door opened and the dark visor of a welding helmet stared out at Leo and Sam.

"Who the fuck are you?" Wilkins growled.

"These are the two I was telling you about." Atlas said. "You can let them through, they're not with Fontaine."

"Oh no, _everybody's_ with Fontaine." Wilkins muttered. "Everybody keeps saying he's dead, but I know the truth! Fontaine's still out there. He knows what I did to him, and he's out there, waiting for his chance to knock me off like he did to the others! Well, if you want to get through so badly, you'll just have to prove to me that you're not that fat bastard's lapdogs!"

Leo and Sam both looked at each other, both unsure of what Wilkins was going to ask of them.

"You're going to have to kill those damn spider splicers running amok out there, and don't just come back and _say_ you've killed them! Bring back their hearts! I can tell what they look like!"

"What the hell is a spider splicer?" Leo asked.

"What, you don't know?" Wilkins cackled. "You poor son of a bitch. I don't know what Atlas sees in you, but aren't going to last long out there with brains like that!"

"You didn't answer the question." Sam growled.

"Well, I'll give you a clue. There's four of em out there, and one of them just happens to be right. Behind. You."

Upon hearing the warning, Leo and Sam whipped around just in time to see a dark shape dropping from the ceiling, it's insane cackling mixed with Wilkin's sadistic laughter.


	9. Itsy Bitsy Spider

"_Itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.  
__Down came the rain and washed the spider out.  
__Then came the sun and dried out all the rain  
__And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again."_

-Nursery Rhyme

Chapter 9: Itsy Bitsy Spider…

**Neptune's Bounty**

Seeing the oncoming splicer, both Sam and Leo sidestepped with all the speed their reflexes could muster. The spider splicer landed between them, slashing the rusty fisherman's hooks it was holding straight down. Fortunately for the Marines, the splicer missed and the hooks ground against the steel door, sending sparks flying. Leo flipped the safety on his assault rifle off and pointed it at the splicer, but it was too quick, immediately vaulting toward the ceiling and clambering into an air vent. Both he and Sam fired several bursts into the vent, but were only rewarded with the insane cackling of the spider splicer as she deftly reappeared out of another corner of the room and lunged again. The splicer would have lunged right into Sam, but she instinctively protected herself by shoving the splicer away with a telekinetic push. The splicer, not even phased, merely switched her gaze to Leo and charged him instead. Leo fired the remains of his clip into the splicer, but she didn't even seem phased by the assault. The spider splicer lunged at Leo, knocking him down. He was forced to drop his rifle and use his hands to keep the deranged creature at bay, is it tried to slash and bite him. Thinking quickly, Leo put his hand against the splicer's head and gave it the most powerful electric shock he could muster. The ADAM power up really made a difference, as the spider splicer seized up from the electricity interrupting her nervous system. Leo then followed up with a powerful right cross, knocking the paralyzed splicer off of him. With a clear shot, Sam emptied her rifle clip into the splicer, but like before, it didn't seem to do much more than annoy her. Thinking fast, Leo reached into his ammo pouch and pulled out a magazine with red tape tied around it. The tape signified that this particular magazine carried specialized ammunition, and the color red meant that it was holding antipersonnel shredder rounds. Before the splicer could get back up, he unloaded the entire clip into the splicer. The shredder rounds exploded on contact with the splicer's body, sending high velocity bullet fragments spiraling throughout her body, piercing, cutting, and shredding her internal organs to pieces. The spider splicer thrashed around wildly as she bled to death, still vainly trying to get up and cut Sam and Leo to ribbons. Finally, her shrieking and struggling stopped when Sam drew her pistol and shot the splicer in the head.

"_What the hell is that thing?!_" Sam gasped, helping Leo back up to his feet.

"That'll be one of those spider splicers I've been telling you about!" Wilkins cackled. "That's one down, and two to go! Oh, and don't forget to bring me the hearts!"

"Wait, how are we supposed to get them?" Leo asked, realizing too late just how stupid that question sounded.

"What are you, stupid? You cut em out of course!" Wilkins yelled. "What, were you expecting to just bend down and pull it out of its pocket?"

"Well, you killed it, so you do it." Leo said quickly.

"_What._" Sam glared at Leo.

"It's just a suggestion, of course." Leo said, suddenly very afraid of his own safety.

"How about this: I cut out this splicer's heart, and I don't _kill you_, and you can take care of the other two splicers." Sam said, her eyes boring holes straight through Leo.

"D-deal." Leo stammered.

"Ugh, I am so not going to like this." Sam drew her combat knife, took a deep breath, and made the first incision in the slicer's body, causing coagulating blood and pus to seep out of the cuts and bullet holes. "Ewwww, this is so _disgusting_."

Even standing a few feet away, Leo had to keep from gagging and vomiting. He looked on as Sam, craning her neck away from the gruesome sight and smells, dug her hand into the splicer's chest cavity and finally yanked out a meaty little organ the size of a baseball.

"Ooooh, that's a nice one." Wilkins said with glee. "Put it in the tube, and it'll be two more for you."

Sam quickly dropped the heart into the transport tube next to the steel door and turned to Leo and grinned, "Well, that wasn't so bad."

She then promptly turned around and puked, emptying what little she ate over the past few hours all over the blood spattered floor.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked.

"Not one of the things I imagined doing when I signed up with the Marines." Sam gagged.

"Come on, let's just find those spiders so we can get the hell out of here."

**Arcadia**

As she made her way to the Farmer's Market, Karla was still wondering why she could never seem to get anything done. Whenever she was on the verge of advancing to some other area, shit had to happen and she found herself getting sidetracked into doing something she never intended to do just to keep going. She wondered if she was just getting frustrated or if she was spending too much time in the gas-filled greenhouse. She completely hated wearing her gas mask. Not only did the lens sometimes fog up and impede her vision, but the noises the breather unit made and the way it amplified the sound of natural breathing made it impossible to hear anything at all. 

Karla remained on edge and her heart rate spiked when she saw something rustling in the dead bushes. She kept her rifle trained at where she saw the movement and carefully made her way into the bulkhead that led to the Farmer's Market. After the heavy bulkhead doors closed, the bushes continued to rustle impatiently.

**Farmer's Market**

True to its name, the Farmer's Market was just a large complex of stalls selling all kinds of natural goods. In the days when civilization reigned, Karla could easily imagine the stalls filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, with people milling about as the men and women working the stalls attempted to sell their wares. Now, like the rest of Rapture, it was empty and cold. The wooden stalls were beginning to rot away, along with the leftover products that weren't looted or destroyed. Thankfully, the poison gas Ryan was pumping into Arcadia was absent from the market, so Karla happily pulled her gas mask off and reviewed her "shopping list".

As she read the list Langford gave her, Karla saw that she needed several vials of bee enzymes, chlorophyll, and distilled water. All of these could be easily found in the market, but there was one more item that would be more difficult to obtain. Langford also required a blue rose, which only grew in the deepest parts of Arcadia and was the only plant that could resist the effects of Ryan's plant killing gas. Karla decided to leave the rarest item for last and continued on into the market. She quickly found bottles of distilled water and chlorophyll lying around uselessly on the stalls, most likely because none of the splicers could find any use for them. She grabbed several handfuls and stuffed them into her pack. The bee enzymes would be farther into the market. Langford also told Karla that the market had its own source of organic honey in the form of several sets of beehives, which were also the subjects of numerous experiments.

"WARNING! LOOTING DETECTED IN SECTOR FIVE! ALL OFFENDERS ARE TO LAY ON THE GROUND AND PUT THEIR HANDS BEHIND THEIR HEAD! FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION!"

The loud, yet raspy electronic voice caught Karla off guard. No doubt that it was some sort of old, automated security system. Since there apparently wasn't any kind of life around, she ignored the warnings, until she heard this odd humming sound in the distance. She turned to see a swarm of ramshackle flying drones speeding in her direction, the automatic weapons crudely rigged onto their hulls pointing straight at her.

"Son of a bitch." Karla said to herself before taking cover behind a stall. Submachine gun rounds flew everywhere, ripping everything around the stall to shreds. Apparently, accuracy was something that wasn't programmed into these drones.

"SUBJECT RESISTING ARREST! LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED!" The electronic voice yelled again.

"Typical." Karla sighed. "McDonagh, I got little flying robots all over me!"

"You have to find the manual shutoff!" McDonagh yelled through the radio. "Every sector should have one!"

"Where is it?" Karla asked, wincing as several ricocheting rounds bounced off her chestplate.

"Just up ahead. Oh, and I hope you've got a few credits on you."

"What?" Karla wasn't sure if she heard that last part quite right.

"Money! The manual shutoff only works if you've got money, like one of them vending machines!" McDonagh explained.

"What the hell!?" Karla scowled, even more confused. "_What the hell is wrong with you people!?_"

"Hey, I only build the stuff down here." McDonagh said defensively.

"Goddamnit." Karla shook her head and fired on the oncoming drones. Since they were mechanical, the odd random shot would only cause them to flinch. It took a long, concentrated burst in order to knock one out of the sky and take it down for good. The drones' rain of fire was momentarily disrupted, giving Karla time to break off and sprint for the shutoff switch. Two more drones flitted in front of her in an effort to cut her off. Rather than trying to use her rifle, since its magazine was spent, Karla drew her plasma sword and used it to chop both drones to pieces. Keeping up her pace, and painfully aware of the bullets zipping past her, Karla dug in her pockets and prayed to every single god and deity she could think of that she remembered to bring a cash card with her. She reached into every imaginable pocket and pouch until finally, her fingers grasped prepaid cash card and kissed it in a moment of irrational glee. Then, the only problem was hoping that the systems in Rapture would recognize Karla's card as usable currency. With nothing more to lose, Karla sprinted to the shutoff switch and jammed the card into the receiver slot.

The console beeped loudly, and a split second later, the drones immediately shut down and tumbled out of the air like dead weights. Karla glanced at the drones to make sure they were down for good, and then finally leaned against the wall to catch her breath.

"Why does nothing make sense anymore?" Karla complained.

**Tartarus**

"Are you finished yet?" Tarin hissed, glancing out the window of the security center to see if the splicers were coming yet.

"If I had a degree in mechanical engineering, yes." Williams said nervously as he played with more wires. "But I don't, and the only experience I've got is messing around with the onboard radio on the Warthog so it can pick up our favorite morning talk shows."

"You don't have to get all pissy with me." Tarin sighed.

"Yeah, well it happens when I get frustrated and- SON OF A BITCH!"

"What happened?" Tarin whipped around to see what was happening.

"Had a goddamn short, and I've just discovered that electricity _hurts_." Williams complained as he checked his hand for any injuries.

"My my, at this rate, you'll never get the systems back online before the splicers come!" Dantalion mused. "Though I have to say, I'm very interested in that possibility."

"I guess that means one thing." Tarin drew her pistol and knife. "Looks like I'm going to have to buy you some time."

"Please do." Williams furiously returned to his repair efforts.

Tarin skulked out of the security station and took position at the alley she and Williams had just come out of. She hugged the wall and watched as three splicers burst from the alley. Tarin waited for them to move forward more so that their backs were turned to her and she finally struck. She advanced on the rearmost splicer, clamped her hand over his mouth to keep him from making any noise, and jammed her knife into his kidneys. The splicer struggled for several seconds, before Tarin yanked her knife out and stabbed it yet again into the artery in his armpit, causing him to bleed out.

As the splicer fell, he dropped something large an heavy, and Tarin immediately caught it so that the noise of it striking the floor wouldn't alert the other splicers. Examining the item she had just picked up, Tarin realized that it was some sort of ramshackle crossbow that was capable of firing crossbow bolts semi-automatically. Unable to suppress the temptation to use it, Tarin aimed the crossbow at the back of the skull of the next splicer. With a great loud _whump_, the first bolt shot out and buried itself into the splicer's brain, knocking him down. The third splicer managed to turn around just in time to see the second bolt zooming straight at her, puncturing her left eye and sending her spinning before toppling down dead.

At that moment, Williams poked his head out of the security center, glanced at the recent carnage, and said, "I'm not sure who I'm more scared of, the splicers or you."

"That's not a nice thing to say to your girlfriend." Tarin snorted, examining her newfound weapon more carefully. "Have you fixed it yet?"

"Uhh, not really." Williams said abashedly. "Dantalion isn't much help either."

Tarin examined the crossbow more closely as well as the splicer she had taken it from. She noticed three distinct types of bolts. There were the normal, crudely made bolts which were sometimes nothing more than steel rebar, but there were also specialized bolts color coded by red and blue tips. Tarin tested out the blue one, and was surprised to see that it was actually some sort of electrified tripwire. The red bolts, surprise surprise, were exploding. Suddenly, more splicers began making their way through the alley. Tarin took a position in the security center, where there was more cover, and began firing crossbow bolts from long range. The few splicers that weren't struck down hit the tripwires Tarin had placed down earlier, giving a nasty and lethal dose of electricity. Finally, the splicers either gave up, or just ran out of people for Tarin to shoot down, as they quickly fell back. Tarin thought at first that they were finally gone for good, but was quickly proven wrong. Another splicer began making his way down the alley. However, this one was different. However many bolts Tarin fired at it, they all bounced off of his skin, as if it were made of stone. Low on bolts, Tarin picked up one of the explosive ones and fired it straight at the stoneskin splicer's chest. The pressure sensitive tip detonated on impact, blowing the splicer back several feet. Though the bolt didn't penetrate his tough skin, the explosive force of the blast liquefied his internal organs.

Then, a sudden low hum and Williams cry of joy signified that he had finally gotten the stupid security console to work.

"Haha!" Williams yelled happily. "Eat _that_, MIT!"

Seconds later, dozens of security drones arrived, firing on the splicers and forcing them back into the shadows.

"I must say, I never expected you to live this long." Dantalion mused. "I guess that experiment is concluded. You may now continue."

With that, the lockdown status on the door back to the Lambda facility winked off, and it slowly began to open.

"How did you do that?" Williams asked.

"Oh, a being of my stature and rank possesses all of the lockdown override codes. It's quite obvious, really." Dantalion said casually.

"So this was just all one big game to you?" Tarin seethed.

"Oh, not a game! An _experiment_." Dantalion giggled. "Isn't science wonderful?"

**Farmer's Market**

It was quite easy for Karla to find where the beehives were located. After all, a store name like Honey Mart was fairly far from subtle. Before entering, Karla made sure her rifle was loaded and armed. She had already run into several splicers making her way here, and she wasn't taking any chances. As she entered, she saw that like every other store, the entire place was ransacked and everything of any sort of value was stolen. The only life in the room was a lone splicer standing behind the counter, who looked up to see Karla aiming an assault rifle right at him. A quick burst sent the splicer's perforated head snapping back and the dead splicer fell over. Karla then vaulted the counter and made her way to the back of the store, where she assumed the hives were being kept. Farther in, she saw a console in front of an observation window. On the other side stood at least a dozen gigantic beehives, all buzzing with life. Karla felt something under her boot and she bent down to examine it, finding an empty vial of what was labeled as "bee enzyme". She looked through the window and saw similar but full vials lying around. It would have been a simple matter of picking them up if it weren't for the fact that there were millions of bees buzzing around the room. Karla wasn't sure if these were the fairly docile domestic bees, or the super aggressive killer ones, but she wasn't taking any chances. She reluctantly pulled her gas mask back on to protect her face and eyes from any potential stings. It was then that she noticed that the console in front of her had a control to release smoke. Karla remembered vaguely from some long forgotten lecture that smoke interfered with bees' ability to communicate, making it less likely for them to attack. Karla hit the control, and winced as a steady stream of smoke began to fill the room. Confident that the bees were docile enough, Karla ventured into the hive room and began picking up as many of the vials of bee enzyme as she could. However, as she was collecting, she heard a raspy voice in the background yell, "Thief! Protect the hives!"

Karla whipped around to see various dark silhouettes scuttling around in the smoke. Fortunately, from what she could see, they weren't armed with firearms. However, the wicked looking pipes and wrenches would still be a problem if they got in close enough. Karla backed up, realizing that the splicers were between her and the exit, meaning she would have to fight them. She fired her rifle, but the smoke and limited field of view her gas mask provided prevented her from landing any clean shots. Suddenly, a splicer she had missed materialized out of the smoke and struck her in the side of the head with a monkey wrench. Karla's gas mask was knocked off and she fell to the ground, dazed by the sudden attack. The splicer didn't let up and continued the attacks. Karla feebly tried to fend him off and protect herself with her arms, but only ended getting her left arm broken. However, adrenaline and pure desperation helped Karla suppress the pain, and she slashed out with her plasma sword, cleaving the splicer in half. With the immediate threat over, Karla scrambled to get her mask back on. The smoke was stinging her eyes, and inhaling some of it made her lungs burn and cough uncontrollably. She hastily and sloppily slipped her mask back on, which was quite a feat since she was forced to do it with a single hand. Getting back to her feet, Karla slung her rifle around her shoulder and opted to use her plasma sword instead, cutting a swath through two more splicers until she noticed something was wrong.

As they were fighting, Karla realized that she no longer heard the hiss of the smoke being injected into the room, and that everything was starting to become clearer and easier to see. The smoke was beginning to thin, which meant there was nothing to stop the bees from attacking. Already, the swarms enveloped the attacking splicers. Because they lacked Karla's level of protection, they quickly succumbed the relentless assault of bees. Karla had her body armor and gas mask to stave them off, but it wasn't foolproof. Some of the little bastards managed to crawl their way in through the seams and openings in her armor and started to sting. However, they were just pinpricks compared to the burning fire in both her lungs and her arm. She instinctively yet pointlessly swatted at the bees with her plasma sword, the heat it generated literally roasting any bees that flew too near it. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she finally managed to reach the front of the store, closing the door behind her and collapsing behind the counter. Karla then hastily rolled the sleeve on her left arm back and took out one of the medkits she had taken with her. Inside was an injector filled with an ADAM-based healing compound, designed to heal internal injuries. She injected it directly into her arm and started using the salve variant to treat her bee stings, but unfortunately, there was nothing in the kit to deal with smoke inhalation. 

Slumped behind the counter, Karla felt physically spent. Her wounds hadn't completely healed yet and she was aching all over. However, she was determined to keep going. After giving herself a few minutes of rest, Karla struggled to her feet and stumbled her way out of Honey Mart and back towards Arcadia. She only had one more component to find, after all.

**Neptune's Bounty**

"Behind you!" Leo yelled as he reloaded his rifle.

Sam whipped around and put down another splicer that tried to jump them. So far, they were trailing the second spider splicer, who seemed to do nothing but lead them into more and more splicers to fight. It seemed to be toying with them, but Sam and Leo pressed on anyway. Eventually, they managed to flush the spider splicer out of its hiding places in the city vents and managed to tail it to an abandoned bar/hotel. As they moved inside, they immediately noticed the lack of other splicers, which meant that the spider was close. In preparation, Sam and Leo both loaded shredder rounds in their rifles. They quickly swept the bar and found nothing but empty and broken bottles. Both Marines then moved carefully into the hotel portion of the building, painfully aware of the loud creaking of the aged and rotted wood underneath their feet.

"Wait." Sam motioned for Leo to stop and the stood still for several seconds. Over their heads, they could hear the faint but signature creaking of wood directly above them. Without hesitating, both Leo and Sam aimed their rifles upwards and fired. The volume of fire and the weight of the splicer caused the ceiling to collapse, revealing the spider splicer. Perforated by shredder rounds, he thrashed wildly, forcing Leo and Sam to back off. As Leo backed off, one of the hotel doors behind him splintered open to reveal a _second_ spider splicer. The splicer tackled Leo to the ground and they both began to struggle in a fierce melee.

Meanwhile, Sam was too occupied with the first spider splicer. It had already scrambled back onto its feet and Sam was forced to fire at it. However, the spider splicer was quick and sprinted in a zigzag pattern, tackling Sam and forcing them both over the second story railing and into the bar below. Fortunately, Sam managed to twist around and land on top of the splicer, absorbing most of the impact. Unfortunately, the splicer was tough enough to take the impact without being affected much and it quickly tossed Sam off like a rag doll and readied itself to attack again. Sam scrambled to find her rifle, but realized it had been knocked away under a table, out of her reach. She looked to the other side and saw a big daddy sauntering into the bar with nothing to do. Remembering that new plasmid Tenebaum had given her, Sam aimed her arm at the big daddy and concentrated. A gooey green blob shot out of her hand and landed square on the big daddy, which suddenly made it snap to attention. It glanced at Sam, and then the spider splicer. The big daddy's visor then flashed an angry red and it roared, charging the splicer. The splicer was quick witted enough to dodge the big daddy, gaining distance and hissing like an angry cat. Then, in an odd reversal, the big daddy gently helped Sam back to her feet and then lightly shoved her into a position where the big daddy was between her and the splicer. Both creatures charged each other, each roaring and screaming in their respective languages. Every wall, item and piece of furniture in the bar was completely demolished as the big daddy and spider splicer brawled, sending wooden splinters and shards of glass firing everywhere. However, the fight was bound to end sooner or later. While the spider splicer was small, quick, and agile, the big daddy was large, powerful, and pretty much invulnerable. The big daddy had enough stamina to outlast the splicer and it wasn't long before the spider splicer finally made a mistake, not quite dodging the big daddy's grab as fast as it could have. Once the big daddy got a firm grip on the splicer's head, it was all over. The big daddy's massive gauntlet was large enough to hold the splicer's head like a melon, and the massive creature squeezed until the poor splicer's head cracked and its eyeballs popped out of its head. As if to add insult to injury, the big daddy slammed the splicer's head into the bar until the heavy oak panels snapped like toothpicks. Finally, satisfied that its job was done, the big daddy waddled over to Sam in an odd, eerily childlike manner.

"Wow, I think I like this plasmid." Sam cracked a grin, and then realized that Leo was still in trouble.

Meanwhile, back on the second floor, Leo was indeed still in trouble. As he struggled with the splicer, he managed to keep the splicer at bay, but the vicious creature then attempted to just bite him. Leo held the splicer's head at bay with his right hand and tried to reach for his knife with his left. It finally grasped something and Leo swung it with all his might, smashing whatever was in his hand into the side of the splicer's head. Then Leo realized that he was holding a frag grenade. The splicer made another move to bit him so Leo instinctually took the grenade he was holding and rammed it into the splicer's open mouth. The surprised splicer hesitated for a second, allowing Leo to pull the arming pin from the grenade and kick the splicer off of him. Once he was free, Leo quickly scrambled away to get out of the grenade's killzone. He then heard a loud _bang _behind him and felt the concussion wave knock him down. As he got up from and turned around, he saw the spider splicer still standing there, with a blackened stump where its neck and by extension the rest of its head used to be.

At that moment, Sam and her accompanying big daddy reached the hall and saw the fresh carnage wreaked by the grenade. She then looked at Leo and seeing that he was okay, jokingly asked, "Did you say something witty when you blew its head off?"

"No." Leo sighed, "I honestly can't say I have."

"Well that's too bad." Sam shrugged.

"Though if I did, I probably would have said that he'd bitten off more than he could chew." Leo said rather stupidly.

"You're off the fucking rocker!" Sam exclaimed.

It was right then that Leo finally noticed the big daddy standing loyally behind Sam like some kind of odd, superhuman pet. "Sam, what the hell is that thing doing here?"

The big daddy growled as if it had taken offense to Leo's comment, and its visor momentarily flashed from green to red.

"Hey, calm down." Sam said to the big daddy. "He didn't mean anything by it."

The big daddy then merely growled at Leo and shuffled off into the darkness.

"Right, so now we get to the best part." Sam prodded the splicer's charred corpse with her toe. "It's time for you to get to the heart cutting."

"Son of a bitch." Leo sighed.

"And don't think you're going to worm out of it, or I'll call Mr. Tall, Dark, and Smelly to come back."

"I _knew_ I shouldn't have let you get that plasmid." Leo growled.

**Neptune's Bounty**

"Hmph, so you two are still alive." Wilkins said grumpily as he peered out the freezer door.

"You sound surprised." Leo said sarcastically.

"Well, I guess I can let you through then." Wilkins conceded. "But _no weapons_. You put them in the tube and get them later once you get the hell out of my freezer."

"I don't know about that…" Sam said, tightening the grip on her sniper rifle. It was against every Marine rule to knowingly give up your weapon to somebody less than trustworthy.

"Fine, then you can just stay out there and face off against the rest of the spiders while you're out there. I can't imagine them being very happy about you offing three of their number." Wilkins croaked.

"Just do as he says." Tenebaum said calmly. "Besides, you've still got your plasmids in case things get out of hand."

"Fine." Sam grumbled and placed her weapons in the tube, with Leo following suit.

"Good. I guess I can let you in now."

With that, the freezer door creaked open. A wave of cold air and mist hit them like a moving wall, sending chills through their bodies. As they moved deeper inside, they passed a number of automated defenses, but oddly enough, there was no sign of Wilkins at all. The thick crust of ice that had built up on the ground over the years crunched and crackled under Leo and Sam's boots, and the wide, metallic space of the freezer only served to amplify the sound. As they rounded the corner, they found themselves in a massive room which served as a hub between numerous other freezers. Some of the doors looked operational while others were completely blocked off by walls of ice. As they stepped inside, the door behind them slammed shut, and the freezers systems automatically engaged, filling the room with a thick frozen mist that reduced their visibility to zero.

"You think you could fool Wilkins that easily?!" Wilkins cackled in the mist. "I now you're Fontaine's lapdogs! I'll show you what I do to little fucking liars like you!"

Wilkin's laughter soon faded behind the fierce howl of the freezer motors, which was pierced again by dozens of additional voices, all laughing, cackling, and slowly getting louder…


	10. Freezer Burn Sucks

"_Fontaine's putting the screws on us, and double. He's squeezing us out 80 points of our cut with the threat of turning us in to Ryan if we don't play ball. Son of a bitch. Sammy G. comes and tells me he's thinking of going to the constable, and the next day, Sammy G. was found in a sack in the salt pond. We got no choice here. We stay on Fontaine's crew, we're gonna catch the gallows. We take a powder, and we end up like Sammy G. There's gotta be another way... "_

_-Peach Wilkins_

Chapter 10: Freezer Burn Sucks

**Neptune's Bounty**

It didn't take very long for Sam and Leo to realize that they were both in seriously deep trouble. Blinded by the cold blast of air spewing from the freezer systems, both Marines maintained an alert posture.

"Do you have your infrared goggles?" Leo asked.

"Uhhh, no." Sam replied sheepishly. "I kinda didn't bring them."

"Why the hell not?" Leo sighed, firing a short burst of electricity at a blurry silhouette in the fog. Infrared goggles would have been a blessing in a situation like this, since a person's body heat would stand out like a blazing sun against an ambient temperature that was well below freezing.

"Because I thought you brought them." Sam pouted.

"Yeah, well I lost them when, you know, we got hit by that giant wall of water."

"Jeez! Do I have to do everything here?" Sam sighed and dug into one of her pockets, taking out an infrared scope. However, unlike goggles, the infrared scope was designed to quickly swap out the traditional optics of a sniper rifle, meaning that it only covered one eye and had a significantly narrower range of vision.

"Give me that." Leo snatched the scope from Sam's hands and held it up to his eye. "Just like we always do, I spot and you nail them."

Leo took one look through the scope and didn't like what he saw. There were easily a half dozen splicers milling about the freezer, hanging back and waiting for a moment of weakness that they could exploit. Not intending to let that happen, Leo patted Sam on the shoulder and pointed in the direction of the nearest splicer. "Splicer that way, about twelve feet."

Through the scope, Leo could see the splicer shriek as if it were hit by an invisible truck. The splicer just kept flying backwards until it slammed into another freezer door with a sickening _crunch_ and reverberated throughout the freezer. The other splicers hesitated and looked around confused. Leo continued relaying splicer positions to Sam and two pancaked splicers later, Wilkins and his goons caught on to the fact that their little tactic wasn't working. As abruptly as it started, the flow of cold mist cut off, leaving what was left of it to settle on the floor and making the entire freezer visible again. Unfortunately, that also meant that Sam and Leo could see the opposition. Standing there in front of them was Wilkins with a veritable army of splicers. Fortunately, they were all armed with only melee weapons, and Wilkins was the only one armed with a firearm, which appeared to be an absolutely ancient revolver.

"Tear the bastards apart!" Wilkins yelled enthusiastically while making sure he was well behind his line of insane thugs.

The splicers responded with an incoherent babble of laughter, shrieking, and yelling. As they ran forward, Leo noticed a rather large, knee-deep pool of unfrozen water between them and splicers. While some of the splicers were prudent enough to leap over the pool, the rest were in too much of a bloody frenzy to care and charged through it, sending cold water splashing everywhere. At that moment, Leo fired the most powerful bolt of lightning he could muster into the pool, sending waves of energy pulsing through the water and by the extension, the splicers standing in it. The collection of splicers shrieked and convulsed in pain as the lightning paralyzed them and roasted them from the inside. Two more splicers tried to leap over the massacre, only to hit an invisible brick wall, courtesy of Sam, and fall into the lethal water as well. By the time the last splicer stopped screaming, eight of the splicers were dead which was effectively two thirds of Wilkins' force down. The remaining four splicers, now a bit more wary of the threat they faced, slowed their advance and kept their distance, making doubly sure to stay away from the water. Leo, feeling drained, injected an EVE vial in order to replenish his energy. He glanced at his belt and grimaced, noticing that he only had one vial left. He looked over and saw Sam use up her final vial.

"Guess we have to make it count this time." Leo grumbled.

This time, Wilkins thought it would be best to give his henchmen some encouragement. He drew his revolver and fired off several shots at Sam and Leo, forcing them to dive to the side and take cover. The remaining splicers closed in, emboldened somewhat by the momentary weakness. However, Sam was able to shove the splicers back temporarily with her telekinesis long enough for Leo to recover and use his own plasmid. Four high strength lightning bolts shot out and fried the splicers, sending them toppling to the floor. However, having to use the same powerful attack so many times in sequence so quickly left Leo drained and temporarily vulnerable. Wilkins took this opportunity to reload his revolver and aim it at Leo.

"Leo!" Sam instinctively reached out at the revolver and snatched it out of Wilkins' hand. However, as she guided the revolver towards herself, another group of splicers piled into the freezer. Two tackled Sam to the ground, breaking her concentration and sending the revolver flying uncontrollably through the air before it clattered on the ground a few feet away from Leo. As he reached to grab it, he noticed movement to the side and managed to barely dodge the icy pipe a third splicer was swinging at him. He faced the splicer and waited for it to try and attack again. The splicer didn't hesitate and charged, swinging the pipe it was holding. Leo's close combat training instinctively kicked in and he grabbed the splicer's right wrist and kept his grip firm. The splicer, taken by surprise, stared dumbly at Leo for a second before the Marine brought his elbow down on the splicer's arm with all the strength he could muster. There was a sickening _crunch_ as the splicer's elbow bent the opposite way of where it was supposed to go, forcing the arm into a freakishly unnatural position and causing the pipe to clatter to the ground. The splicer backed off, shrieking in pain. It only stopped when Leo picked up the pipe and smashed the splicer's head in.

Dropping the pipe, Leo saw that Sam was still struggling with the pair of splicers that had ambushed her. He quickly slid over to where the revolver lay, aimed carefully, and took out both splicers with several well aimed shots. He then pointed the revolver at Wilkins and fired the rest of the clip, but it didn't seem to do anything but annoy him a bit. Obviously, Wilkins was splicing some sort of plasmid that gave him superhuman invulnerability.

"Well shit." Leo breathed. Before he knew it, Wilkins was already charging across the freezer towards him. Leo tossed the useless revolver aside and picked up the pipe again, ready to defend himself.

Meanwhile, Sam grunted as she rolled one of the dead splicers off of her, just in time to see Wilkins swat Leo aside like a rag doll. He flew back and hit the freezer wall and slid down, unmoving. It was at this point that Wilkins turned to glare at Sam, now focusing his attention on her.

"Crap." Sam breathed, scrambling up to her feet. The only weapon she had now was a rusty knife she had procured from one of the slain splicers. Wilkins lunged, causing Sam to instinctively swing out her arm, and managed to miraculously impale Wilkins in the neck, just above the collarbone. However, Wilkins just made a gravelly laugh, pulled the knife out of his neck, and in a seemingly unnecessary and overly ridiculous fashion, _bit the blade off with his bare teeth_. Wilkins then spat the useless blade out of his mouth and glared at Sam.

"You're going to pay for that one, bitch." Wilkins growled.

"_Crap_."

**Arcadia**

As the bulkhead door to the Farmer's Market closed behind her, Karla flexed and stretched her arm to make sure it was usable again. Though it still ached and stung as she practiced the more complex movements, Karla found that she could get some decent usage out of her arm, something that she would have had to wait weeks for under normal circumstances.

"Nifty stuff." Karla whispered to herself before prepping her gear. The bulkhead door to Arcadia was just about to open and she didn't know what to expect on the other side.

As if on cue, the poisonous gas killing Arcadia flowed into the airlock the moment the bulkhead door slid open. Satisfied that her gas mask was still filtering out the gas properly, Karla cautiously made her way back into the poisoned greenhouse. She noticed that the bushes nearby weren't rustling anymore. Whatever was there before was gone now, or so she hoped. She saw no other splicers around, most likely because they were either driven away or killed by the gas. However, there was still the odd splicer and big daddy that Karla had to deal with, and to great reluctance, a couple of little sisters as well. She even came across several plasmid injectors, as well as the raw ADAM she had collected over time. Karla briefly considered taking them, but quickly shook off that notion. After seeing what prolonged ADAM usage and dependence did to the splicers, Karla had no wish to risk ending up like the monsters she was fighting, even if they did make surviving easier down here. Her admirers and detractors didn't call her an "uncompromising, hardcore bitch" for nothing.

As Karla got closer to the last known grove of blue roses, she heard a voice calling out.

"Help! Is anybody there? Please help me!" A distant voice pleaded.

Karla paused. This could be a trap, but then again, most of the enemies she had met didn't seem to have the mental capacity to grasp such a concept anymore. Besides, it could actually be a genuine survivor, and at this point, Karla was quite desperate to have _any _sort of company other than a detached voice over her radio.

"Is somebody there?" Karla yelled out in response to the plea.

"Oh god! Is somebody out there?" The voice yelled back. "I'm over here!"

Karla followed the voice into an underground basement area, rifle raised. In a place like this, she didn't really want to take any chances. She carefully scoured the dark, dank halls and reached where she believed the voice was originating, only to find an empty hallway.

"What the?" Karla said to herself, perplexed.

Suddenly, she heard something rustle behind her, like a person running. Karla whipped around just in time to see a human shaped figure run past across the next hallway over. Karla ran in an effort to follow, but rounded the corner only to find another empty room.

Karla was now thoroughly unnerved. She had no idea what she was dealing with, and thought it was best to cut her losses and withdraw. However, when she turned, she was suddenly hit in the chest with a ball of fire. She fell backwards, stunned and surprised and only managed to catch a passing glimpse of her attacker before losing sight of him again. Fortunately, Marine body armor was designed not to be very flammable, so it was a simple matter to pat the flames out, leaving a minor scorch mark on Karla's chestplate. Suddenly, another fireball flew past her head and Karla turned to see the attack splicer moments before it literally disappeared into thin air.

"A teleporter, huh?" Karla surmised. Well, she had never fought teleporters before, but Karla did face off against cloaked Covenant troops, and their methods of attack were basically the same. They both relied heavily on stealth and surprise, as well as attacking from their target's most vulnerable areas. Karla quietly pulled out a motion sensor mine and dropped it behind her. She then crept forward, rifle raised. She then heard an odd _popping_ sound and caught sight of the splicer to her right. She spun around to fire, but the splicer was too fast, teleporting before she could get a clean shot. Karla moved forward a little more and heard the same _popping _sound, but now it was followed by a much louder _bang_ which was accompanied by a brief, forceful shockwave, heat, and a rain of body parts. She then turned around to see a small blast crater where the splicer had made the mistake of teleporting to.

"You were good, but no Houdini." Karla spat. After making sure everything was accounted for, she rearmed her rifle and moved on.

**Lambda Complex**

"My, you've certainly exceeded my expectations!" Dantalion gleefully giggled as Tarin and Williams stumbled back into the relative safety of the Lambda Complex. "Your predecessors could only withstand up to a half dozen splicers before they were prematurely terminated."

"Good for us." Tarin grumbled.

"Yes, this device should increase the categorizing of my test subjects by a factor of five!" Dantalion hummed happily. "Coincidentally, while we're on subject, I did receive some _valuable_ information from one such test subject… after the proper persuasion of course."

Tarin and Williams looked at each other, unsure of whether they wanted to know what exactly Dantalion meant when he used the word _persuasion_.

"Apparently, two rather enterprising enemies of science and progress are planning to try and unseat me and the Director." Dantalion explained with his usual flair.

"Wouldn't that be wonderful." Tarin muttered under her breath.

"And what, you just want us to go and whack these two people like a pair of hired thugs?" Williams asked angrily.

"Thugs? No. Hired? Most definitely." Dantalion hummed. "But there's a bit more. Apparently, they've also been building a certain device…"

A holoprojector slid out of the wall and spat out a partial schematic of what looked like a crude bomb with several low resolution pictures of the actual device.

"This device that Kyburz and Navarro have been building is using parts and components that were originally in the possession of the Lambda Complex." Dantalion said, annoyance beginning to tinge his usually cheerful attitude. "You are to eliminate Chief Engineer Kyburz and Engineer's Mate Navarro, recover the device, and return it to the Lambda Complex for study."

"And what do we get out of this?" Tarin asked.

"Why, you get to live of course!" Dantalion said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Oh, and while you're in the Hephaestus Core, wipe the AI core in that sector. The AI manning that section has become quite… troublesome recently. I'm quite afraid that it may have gone Rampant."

Both Tarin and Williams wondered whether the mad AI realized the massive irony in that statement. Then again, Dantalion was so crazy that he probably didn't realize it, or worse, he just didn't care.

"The Lambda Complex requires a constant and reliable source of power from Hephaestus Core. I cannot let it become compromised due to the actions of a rogue AI."

Again, the irony struck Tarin and Williams with the force of an anvil falling on their heads.

"I've already uploaded directions and information about Hephaestus Core and its denizens to the main terminal. I have also taken the liberty of unlocking the armory, in case you need to replenish your armaments."

"How uncommonly thoughtful of you." Tarin said sarcastically.

"Why thank you, I like to think of myself as benevolent." Dantalion responded, completely oblivious. "Oh yes, and be sure to take that camera with you."

"What?" Williams held the camera they had gone through so much trouble to collect. "This?"

"Correct! I'll require to take photos of any splicer you encounter with it. It will automatically read their genetic makeup and collate a list of pertinent data. Powers, strengths, weaknesses, etc."

"You do realize that the splicers will attack us on sight, right?" Williams realized how stupid taking pictures in the middle of combat seemed.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find a way." Dantalion shrugged off the comment. "Now if you excuse me, I have experiments to perform and ADAM to harvest!"

A thought suddenly occurred to Williams. Like many other things he did, Dantalion never quite explained what ADAM harvesting was. Then again, like many of the other things Dantalion did, Williams wasn't sure if he wanted to know at all.

**Marine HQ**

Paccone entered the makeshift conference room and found the other five "officers" in there waiting for him. Even they were all sergeants, Maude, Lang, Rilke, Mitchell, and Fultze automatically deferred to Paccone, snapping off salutes to him as a result.

"At ease." Paccone sighed, obviously not used to saying those words at all. "First, status reports."

"We've managed to reinforce our defensive positions. We've boarded up all the breaches, set up heavy weapons emplacements, and our techies even managed to salvage some of those turrets and get them to work for us." Maude said. "However, rations and ammo are going to be a bit of a problem, especially for our heavier weapons."

"Figures." Paccone sighed. "Lang? How are your troops?"

"They just got cleared from the infirmary and I've already got them manning defensive positions." Lang answered.

"Okay then, let's get the meat of this meeting." Paccone looked at his fellow sergeants grimly. "It's quite obvious we're cut off from the _Miller_. Now, we can probably hold our position here for a few days, weeks if we can do some proper foraging, but we can't sustain our presence here forever."

The rest of the sergeants nodded, realizing their seemingly hopeless predicament.

"The only way for us to get out of this alive is for us to reestablish contact with the _Miller_. For all we know, they may think we're all dead and it may have just moved on." Paccone rubbed his eye, suddenly feeling tired. "But I seriously doubt that. However, they still have no idea about our status, which means it'll be all that much harder for them to find us."

"We've tried sending radio messages out." Maude explained. "But we're hitting a lot of interference. The water all around us, jamming signals, hell, even the damn city itself is screwing all of our attempts at long range communication."

"Actually, I think I may have an idea." Rilke raised his hand. "If we can set up a full size communications array at the highest point we can reach and hook it directly into the city's power grid…"

"Then we can just punch through the water and the jamming with brute force and communicate with the _Miller_ directly." Fultze said.

"It sounds like a plan." Paccone said.

The other sergeants nodded sycophantically.

"Alright, then that means I'm going to need a squad of able bodied men." Paccone continued. "Who's willing to put their lives on the line for this crazy scheme?"

He smiled as every Marine in the room raised their hands.

**Arcadia**

It didn't take Karla long to finally reach the underlevels of Arcadia. She had fought her way through several more the so-called Houdini splicers and now she found it rather easy and predictable to combat the teleporting madmen. However, that didn't mean she could afford to let her guard down. After fighting her way past two regular splicers and a sentry turret, Karla reached a large pit in the ground and saw a large flower garden sitting on the bottom, dominated by a knot of blue roses that stayed defiantly bright and vivid amongst their dead and shriveled cousins. After scanning the area carefully for any potential threats, Karla jumped down into the pit and grabbed a handful of the roses. Langford told her she only needed one, but Karla wanted to be absolutely sure. However, as she stuffed them into her pack, an inhuman and very familiar roar filled the air.

"Not again…" Karla groaned.

There was a sudden, ear cracking _whump_ behind her and she turned to see Jason, menacing and terrible in his perverted version of MJOLNIR armor, glaring at her with his fearsome red visor.

Knowing that she couldn't avoid a fight, Karla flipped the safety off on her rifle. "Bring it, you ugly fucker."

Jason roared and charged. As he did so, Karla wryly noted that his armament had changed. The big daddy no longer hefted his massive nail gun, but was now outfitted with a hand-mounted drill and what Karla could only describe as a "power fist", a massive gauntlet that crackled with lethal energy. Jason swung the power fist first, aiming it directly at Karla. She deftly sidestepped and was able to see the power fist pulverize the wooden staircase behind her, shattering the structure and cracking the concrete wall it was connected to apart. Karla then realized that the staircase was the only way out of the pit. In all four directions, she was penned in by a sheer concrete wall about six to seven feet high. While not impossible to scale, it would require time and effort, two things Karla couldn't afford to waste with Jason breathing down her neck. Jason took a couple more swings with both his drill and fist, prompting Karla to keep dodging. She didn't even have enough time to raise her rifle. The pit was so small and enclosed that it was almost impossible to put enough distance between her and Jason to retaliate, at least not without risking getting pulverized by those dual weapons of his.

Suddenly, Karla blinked. She had an idea. She backed up until she was against the concrete wall and waited for Jason to close distance. She waited, and grinned when Jason raised his drill arm and plunged it forward. At the last possible second, Karla ducked and rolled to the side. Jason's drill kept moving forward and plowed straight into the concrete wall. The big daddy then tried to pull its arm out to renew its attack, but realized its arm was stuck. The menacing Jason suddenly looked incredibly silly, trying to pull its arm out of the wall while waving its other one around rather ineffectually. However, Karla knew that she didn't have much time. She vaulted onto Jason's back, using him as a makeshift stepladder to scale the pit wall. Once she reached the top, she turned and dropped a weighty C7 charge on top of Jason's head.

"Enjoy." She said simply before sprinting away to clear the blast. She wasn't prepared to assume that it would finish off Jason for good, but she was fairly sure that it would keep him off her back for a while. With everything she needed in her pack, Karla made the long, arduous journey back up to Langford's lab.

**Neptune's Bounty**

While Sam had never been hit by a truck before, she was pretty sure she had a good idea when Wilkins landed a solid punch right on her chest. Ceramic armor plates in her vest cracked and buckled, and Sam was pretty sure that some of those cracks were her ribs as well. She then hit the floor and slid several meters along the icy ground. Coughing up blood, Sam barely had enough time to get back to her feet when Wilkins picked her up like a rag doll and threw her against the freezer wall. She didn't even get a chance to slide back down to the floor and Wilkins picked her up again, looked straight into her face, and snarled with his cracked lips and rotten teeth.

"Thought you could put me on ice like Sammy G., huh? Well nobody gets rid of Wilkins that easily!"

With that, Wilkins dragged Sam over to the pool of water in the middle of the freezer and tossed her into it. Her armor shrieked as temperature sensors tripped and recorded a massive drop in ambient and body temperature, but Sam couldn't hear it with the freezing water flowing into her ears. She instinctively struggled to get back to the surface, but she felt Wilkins' powerful arms force her back down. In contrast to the freezing water biting into her skin, Sam's lungs burned as her body silently screamed for air. Blackness started to creep into the edges of her vision and she was starting to feel lightheaded, signs of the brain not getting enough oxygen. She swiped at Wilkins with her arms and thrashed her legs in an attempt to break Wilkins' grip, but it was ineffectual at best and only served to tire her even more. As she desperately fought the urge to breathe in the water, Sam's heart began to sink when she realized that she was about to die.

**Olympus Heights**

"Clear." Kumi said as she scanned the forward area with her shotgun, ready to take care of any splicer foolish enough to attempt an ambush.

"Alright, move forward." Paccone said.

With that, Sergeant Fultze and his squad moved forward through the ruined apartment complex, two of his men lugging radio equipment and the parts for a long range radio mast. Thanks to some scavenged maps, Paccone was able to determine the best position to set up the radio mast as well as how to get there. On paper, it seemed simple, but the problem Paccone quickly discovered was that the maps didn't account for the fairly recent battle damage Rapture had suffered during its disastrous civil war. They would often run into stairwells that had long been collapsed, doorways blocked by rubble, and buildings that no longer existed. The delays and difficulty in getting to where they needed to were starting to eat at the nerves of the Marines.

"We've got movement." Kumi whispered.

"Where?" Paccone asked.

"There, in that room to the left." Kumi pointed. "I caught sight of two, maybe three hostiles."

"Alright." Paccone nodded and turned back to his squad. "Orenz, Merell, front and center."

The two Marines moved up and took positions beside Paccone and Kumi. Then both looked at their sergeant and nodded, anxious to vent some of their unease and frustration.

"Okay, let's go." Paccone motioned the fireteam to move forward. As the quartet of Marines crept closer to the apartment, they could hear odd sounds from within. There was screaming, roaring, and gunfire. Cautiously, the Marines moved even closer. Kumi went and took position next to the door, ready to breach. She shrieked in surprise when a splicer flew through the door, splintering the wooden panel into hundreds of pieces and rolling along the ground in a broken heap. It only took one glance to know that the splicer was dead.

Curious as to what the hell was going on, the Marines peeked inside the apartment and found a knot of seven splicers attacking a massive, armored figure that seemed to resemble some kind of demented looking Spartan that was crafted out of old diving gear and rusty metal parts. It was apparently called a big daddy, judging from the shrieks and curses the splicers were yelling as they fought it. Behind the big daddy stood a frightened little girl who was curled in a ball and relying on the big daddy for protection.

"Should we intervene, sir?" Orenz asked.

"No." Paccone shook his head. At that moment, a splicer shrieked and gurgled the big daddy grabbed it and twisted its head off. "Nothing to gain from doing that. Let's just keep moving."

With that, the small Marine squad moved deeper into the ruins, very wary of the screams that echoed behind them.

**Neptune's Bounty**

Sam opened her eyes.

Coughing and gurgling, Sam stood up, suddenly aware that Wilkins was no longer pinning her. She instinctively breathed in the cold air, which seemed to refresh her senses. She rubbed the water out of her eyes and looked around to see what was happening. An enraged, wordless scream suddenly caught her attention and she spun around to see Leo in a brutal melee with Wilkins, both trading blows back and forth. Both men seemed to have given each other their share of punishment, and both looked to be on the verge of collapsing. Wilkins made the first move, lunging at Leo. Leo merely sidestepped, grabbed Wilkins in a headlock, and brought his knee into the splicer's face, breaking his nose with a sickening _crunch_. He then brought Wilkins' head up and then began slamming it into the freezer wall over and over until the wall itself began to crumple and dent from the force.

It was at this point Sam saw Leo's glazed, unfocused eyes and the blind fury contorting his face. Whatever this creature was, it was most definitely not Leo.

Leo, or the entity that looked like him, finally slammed Wilkins' face into the wall with one final, sickening _crack_. He then let the body slide down, leaving a trail of blood and mucous on the wall. However, he wasn't finished yet. Leo then picked up a dropped monkey wrench and brought it down on Wilkins' head, but he didn't stop. He kept swinging the wrench down again, and again, and again.

"LEO!" Sam screamed.

Suddenly, as if a switch were flipped in his head, Leo stopped. He blinked and his eyes focused. He looked around dumbly, wondering where he was until he noticed the corpse at his feet. He stared at it and realized that the head was beaten so badly, it was literally mashed flat, with liquefied brain tissue and bone shards leaking out and freezing in the cold air. Leo wondered what monster could have done that when he looked at the wrench in his hands, as well as the blood covering them. The cold realization of what he had done gripped Leo like an icy hand, and he fell to his knees and vomited. After the final cough, he remembered Sam and stumbled over to the pool.

"Sam, what did I do?" he whispered.

Sam could only stare back at Leo, speechless. Leo could see the fear in her eyes. Her fear of him.

"Sam, _what did I do!?_" Leo pleaded, as if he needed somebody to deny what he already knew.

"Y- you killed him." Sam whispered.

"I- I don't know what happened." Leo said, panicking. "I saw him there, drowning you, and- and something inside me just snapped… just broke, you know? I can't even remember anything after that!"

Sam could see it now, the fear in his eyes mirrored her own. She realized that Leo was just as scared with himself as she was scared of him.

For the second time that day, Sam embraced Leo with all her strength and conviction. She hugged him and started sobbing, and Leo could only hug and sob back. The whole ordeal seemed to last for an eternity, when in truth, only a minute or so had passed.

"Don't ever do that _again_." Sam whispered.

"I won't." Leo promised.

Then Sam sneezed, and both of them realized they were still sitting in a freezer, with one of them soaking wet.

"Come on, let's get you someplace warm." Leo said, helping Sam back to her feet.

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"You know, we're probably going to have to get those clothes off before you freeze to death." Leo said, not even thinking about what he just said.

"_WHAT._" Sam glared at Leo.

At this point, both Sam and Leo silently decided to themselves that it was best to put that one terrifying, terrible moment behind them. They decided to leave it to rot in that god forsaken freezer, along with Wilkins and his goons.

As both Marines moved on deeper into the underlevels of Neptune's Bounty, they left that hellish freezer behind. The corpses they had left behind lay there, the cold eventually solidifying them into organic statues, waiting for the next band of wanderers to stumble upon them.


	11. Getting Hot In Here!

"_You know, on paper, geothermal power seems like the goddamn holy grail of clean energy, but in reality, it's a total crapshoot. I mean, first you gotta find some place that's close enough the surface to drill to, yet hot enough to keep a reactor running. Then, you've got to maintain the machinery, and when you're dealing with geothermal, you're maintaining it CONSTANTLY. I swear, if Ryan doesn't come through with the next paycheck, me and the other guys just won't come to work. Let's see how his precious Rapture will run when the Hephaestus Core goes cold."_

_-rant from a disgruntled Hephaestus engineer_

Chapter 11: Getting Hot in Here!

**Langford's Lab**

"Well it certainly took you long enough." Langford said rather disdainfully as Karla handed the ingredients over to her.

"You could try getting all of this crap yourself." Karla sighed.

"I'm working right now." Langford snapped. She grabbed the ingredients and began mixing them in a beaker. "Okay, now all I need to do is add the binder…"

"Professor Langford! I am very disappointed in you!" A vaguely distinguished voice croaked from the ancient intercom in the room. "Stealing company property? I thought such an act would be beneath you, but it turns out I… assumed incorrectly."

"Ryan!" Langford hissed. "How do you have access to my system?"

"My dear," Ryan tutted, clearly ignoring her question, "I think we have bigger issues to worry about here."

"The Lazarus formula is _mine_!" Langford screamed at the ceiling. "You have no right to take it from me!"

"On the contrary." Ryan replied smoothly. "As per your employment contract and termination terms, all work done while in the employ of Ryan Industries is retained by the employer, and if I remember correctly, the Lazarus formula was developed while you were still a registered employee. It appears that I may have to take _disciplinary measures_."

With that, the intercom clicked off and a deathly familiar _hissing_ sound filled the room. Karla instinctively pulled her gas mask over her face. Her NBC sensors shrieked as they sniffed lethal nerve gas filling the air. Langford's eyes widened when she realized what was happening. Not wasting a moment, she dashed over the safe snuggled in the back of the lab and hastily punched in a code. The safe snapped open and Langford only had enough time to utter and point, "Mix it with the components and plug it into the air supply!"

By then, the nerve gas had already snaked its way into her lungs. Langford coughed and trashed, knocking over beakers and stacks of papers. After several seconds, she toppled to the ground and lay there twitching. Karla bent down to check for a pulse but she already knew what was going to happen. Sighing at the pointless death, Karla stepped over Langford's body and reached for the beaker inside the unlocked safe. She combined it with the mixture Langford had already concocted and then screwed the beaker into the dispersal unit Langford had pointed to. The unit then automatically activated and soon the flood of smoggy green gas outside was replaced by a bright yellow cloud. Karla looked down and saw a small display.

PROGRESS: SIXTEEN PERCENT  
ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL FULL DISPERSAL: SIX MINUTES

Suddenly, alarms all over the lab blared. At the same time, McDonagh's voice crackled over the radio.

"Ryan's onto you!" McDonagh yelled. "Splicers are coming in from everywhere! You've got to get out of there!"

"Wait." Karla glanced back at the timer, which was still ticking down. "I can't let them abort the dispersal."

"But-"

Karla cut off the radio and sprinted out of the lab. She stopped when she saw the entrance slowly being cut open by a torch. She then pulled out her last three proximity mines and set them in front of the rapidly failing door. She glanced to her side and smiled when she noticed the pair of sentry guns searching for targets. Even with Langford gone, her security systems still stood diligently to protect her lab.

It wasn't long until the door's structural integrity finally failed. The moment it fell in, the sentry guns opened up, filling the hole with automatic fire. Seven splicers were cut down in the initial hail of gunfire, and more were taken down by controlled bursts from Karla's rifle. However, she noticed the familiar sound of another cutting torch humming behind her. Trusting the sentries and the mines to hold the front door, Karla ran back into the lab to see part of the wall being cut open. She took cover behind a support column and switched her rifle to full auto, aiming it right at the breach. Like the door, the wall finally gave way and a knot of splicers dashed in, snarling. Karla unloaded her clip into the group, knocking down four of them and grabbing the attention of the rest. She quickly reloaded and kept up the fire, keeping the splicers pinned. However, the stalemate didn't last. Several explosions from the front briefly attracted Karla's attention, which proved to be an almost fatal mistake. She yelped in pain as a sideblown round ricocheted off the column and hit her in the right temple like a sledgehammer. Fighting to stay conscious, Karla fell back to the stairs leading up to Langford's office, half blind and with one arm trying to stem the bleeding from her temple.

And that was when the splicers started dropping from the ceiling.

**Hephaestus Core**

For what seemed like the thousandth time, Williams wiped the sweat from his brow, which was gushing down his face like a waterfall. From the entire briefing, Dantalion had seemed to forget to mention the fact that Hephaestus was incredibly _hot_. The temperature counter on his HUD was reading at roughly 110 degrees Fahrenheit. To make things worse, since the Core was a geothermal facility, it was also ungodly humid, meaning that he was drenched since his sweat had nowhere else to go.

If there was any positive side to this situation, Williams could only think of one. He glanced over to Tarin, who was sweating just as much as she was. She managed to hide it behind that stoic mask of hers, but Williams knew that she was just as uncomfortable in this heat as he was. Another added bonus was that her sweat soaked clothes stuck to her skin, highlighting her slender figure as well as the curves on her-

"Williams!" Tarin snapped.

"What?" Williams blinked, shifting his eyes to Tarin's face.

"Eyes on the objective." Tarin reminded him. "Looks like you're losing focus."

"Yeah, the heat's really getting to me." Williams coughed. His eyes began to wander down again and he started sweating a little more, but it wasn't because of the heat this time.

**Olympus Heights**

"Is this the spot?" Paccone stopped and looked around the area they were in.

"I think it is." Kumi checked the map again to confirm. They were in some sort of amphitheater with a magnificent glass dome for a roof, revealing the murky waters and cityscape above.

"Alright, let's get this equipment set up!" Paccone yelled. Immediately, the technicians lugging the comm equipment ran to the center of the amphitheater.

**Neptune's Bounty**

Sam and Leo had finally made it into the tunnels below Neptune's Bounty. In contrast to the sleek, modern feel of the city above, the smugglers' caves seemed to evoke some deep rooted, primeval response. It was quite obvious that the caves and tunnels were hastily drilled, and there was digging equipment and ancient crates of contraband lying all over the place.

"It shouldn't be far." Atlas said anxiously. "Just a little more."

Sam shivered as a cold breeze blew through the caverns. Unlike the rest of the city, the tunnels did not enjoy the luxury of climate control and cold drafts constantly blew through. Leo meanwhile stayed alert. Even though the tunnels seemed empty, they had run into a few splicers wandering the old caves.

"You know, I've just realized something." Sam said.

"What?" Leo asked.

"Once we rescue Atlas' family, how do we get them out? It's not like there's an hourly tram going in and out of this place."

"Well, maybe we've just got to take them to a safehouse, like where Atlas is." Leo responded, though he didn't relish the idea of having to escort noncombatants through a hostile environment like this one.

"Alright, you're there!" Atlas' voice crackled. "You should be find some sort of control room go inside it."

Sam and Leo looked up to see an old, rusty iron staircase leading up to an abandoned control room. After scaling the ancient steps, they found a dark room full of dust covered control panels.

"Ryan's got this section locked from the inside." Atlas explained. "The manual override should be in there somewhere. It's a big red switch."

Leo started sifting through all the buttons and levers while Sam examined an armored shutter on the other side of the room. She noticed a small lever and pulled it, causing the shutters to open and reveal a small sub pen with a single undersea vehicle docked inside it.

"Leo, look!" Sam pointed to the vehicle.

Leo ran up and saw the submarine for himself. "I guess that's our ticket out of here." He remarked.

"That's also where Ryan's keeping my family locked up." Atlas cut in. "Now hurry up and find that switch!"

Leo returned his attention to the control consoles and found the switch. He flipped it and heard ancient gears and motors grind and hum as the might blast doors in the sub pen below slowly pulled themselves open. Then, a small head poked through the opening and looked around to make sure it was safe. Then, a man walked into the sub pen, glanced up at the control room and waved.

"It's me, guys!" Atlas yelled. "I've gotta crack this thing open, so watch my back for a minute, will you?"

"You got it." Leo nodded.

"Oh no." Sam whispered and pointed.

"Shit." Leo growled as he looked up. There, on the ceiling, were dozens of spider splicers crawling down to ambush Atlas. "Atlas! Look out!"

Atlas turned his head and then tilted it up to where Leo was pointing. He then gave a hearty curse and pulled out a submachine gun from his pack.

"Help me out here!" Atlas yelled, firing at the splicers skittering down the walls. "I just need a minute!"

Leo rushed down into the pen, adding his fire to Atlas' and knocking a few splicers off the walls. Sam held her position near the control room and began picking off splicers with her customary precision fire. Atlas set aside his gun and frantically tapped away at the console he was working on.

"I've almost got it…" Atlas muttered.

"Oh Atlas," A refined, cultured voice oozed out of the pen's intercoms, "did you really think that I wouldn't notice your childish meddling? It seems that you must be taught a lesson."

As the intercom clicked off, Leo could hear an almost inaudible c_lick_ inside the sub, just a split second before it exploded. The shockwave knocked him and Atlas down and swept the splicers off the walls and ceiling like dust. Sam abandoned her position and ran forward to help.

"Leo, are you okay?" She asked, pulling him to his feet and checking for wounds.

"Yeah!" Leo yelled, his ears ringing. "Help Atlas!"

Sam ran over to Atlas, who had now broken down into a sobbing wreck, crawling vainly toward the sinking wreck of the burning submarine.

"Come on!" Sam picked up Atlas and tried to pull him away, conscious of the splicers beginning to surround them. "We have to get out of here!"

Leo got up and surveyed the situation, calculating his options. He immediately knew that they were in a very bad situation. They were exposed in the middle of a room with no cover, and completely surrounded by splicers. His only support was Sam, and it took only one glance for Leo to realize that Atlas was an emotional wreck, which effectively made him useless in combat.

"We're kinda screwed here, aren't we?" Sam sighed, slinging her sniper rifle and swapping it with her assault rifle.

"Looks like it." Leo replied, until something caught the corner of his eye. "Or maybe not…"

**Arcadia**

Karla definitely had better days. The splicers had broken through the first line of Langford's automated defenses and were now trying to push their way past a second pair of sentry turrets as well as a small swarm of drones. She checked her head wound again. It stung badly, but the ricochet that had caused it expended most of its energy, so the wound was mostly superficial. It didn't even penetrate her skull. She pressed a fresh bandage against it and kept firing, though it wasn't nearly as accurate as she was still quite dazed. She reached for another ammo clip when she realized grimly that she only had two left.

"I've got a problem here, McDonagh." Karla grimaced. "I'm running low on ammo."

"Ammo Bandito."

"What?" Karla paused momentarily, unsure of what to say.

"It's a vending machine for ammunition! There should be some in that area."

Karla glanced to her left and sure enough, there was a hokey looking vending machine with a stereotypical Mexican bandit displaying various types of ammo with prices.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Karla sighed. She shoved her cash card into the slot and pressed the button for 7.62mm ammo as fast as she could. Several clips dropped out of the dispenser and Karla quickly snatched them up. With renewed vigor, she kept up her rate of fire, killing any splicer lucky enough to get close.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Karla's stopwatch started beeping, signifying that the dispersal of the Lazarus formula was complete. Not wasting any time, Karla sprinted back to Langford's office. She fired several shots through her observation window overlooking Arcadia and leapt through. She landed roughly on broken glass and soft dirt and rolled to absorb the shock of the landing. When she got up, she realized that everything was colorful again, as if the poisonous gas Ryan had pumped in never existed. With city's oxygen supply secure, the large blast doors at the end of Arcadia pulled themselves open.

"Looks like it's on to the next level." Karla said to nobody in particular.

**Hephaestus Core**

"Look at those poor guys." Williams shook his head in pity. "All this time, and these guys have done nothing but toil away in this hellhole, still making it run."

"I'd be more comfortable with them all being dead." Tarin sighed. "As you've seen, they're not exactly the friendly type."

To drive that point home, Tarin pointed to the fresh corpses of the wretched Hephaestus engineers scattered behind her.

"I don't have the first clue to where this stupid device might be." Williams said, frustrated. "We've been walking in circles around this damn place."

"Because _it is a circle_." Tarin pointed to a worn map painted on the wall. "We have to find the right level though."

"Oh yeah, that makes it even clearer." Williams nodded mockingly.

"Well, according to this…" Tarin squinted as she tried to interpret the fading symbols. "The main engineering and fabrication shops are two levels above us. That's where the thing most likely is."

It was a tense trek through the next two levels. The oppressive heat and the loud machinery kept Tarin and Williams' sense numbed. More than once, several splicers would sneak up on them and try to ambush them. Fortunately, they were able to fight them off, but they were beginning to get craftier, and others had more advanced plasmids. Even worse, there were moments where little sisters were caught in the crossfire, raising the ire of the big daddies protecting them.

"What's the count now?" Williams breathed as a flurry of rivets shot past him.

"This is the third one." Tarin sighed, reloading her rifle.

The big daddy roared, knocking several splicers around and firing more rivets in their direction. The little sister it had been protecting had already long gone, leaving the behemoth free to wreak its havoc on anybody that drew its attention.

"Okay, we'll just take it down like the last two." Tarin declared. "Explosives?"

"We're out."

"AP rounds?"

"Out of those too."

"Do we have _anything_ that can possibly hurt that thing?"

"We can throw some empty clips and yell some harsh language. I'm sure that'll hurt its frail temperament." Williams said sarcastically.

"Ha ha." Tarin sighed. "Cover me."

"Wait, don't tell me you're going to-" Williams stuttered as Tarin broke cover and closed with the big daddy. "Crap."

The big daddy turned to face the seemingly puny human rushing it. It tried to bring its rivet gun into line, but Tarin deftly sidestepped, keeping out of the gun's line of fire. Fortunately for Tarin, her small size and lightning speed was enough to outpace the large and lumbering big daddy's slow turning rate. As the big daddy spun around to try and draw a line on her, Tarin closed in and stabbed her combat knife into the thing seam between the big daddy's helmet and body armor. The monster roared and swung its arm, knocking Tarin away and into a nearby wall and leaving her knife stuck in its neck. Stunned, Tarin realized that she didn't have enough time to recover and dodge the big daddy's next attack. The armored beast turned and raised its rivet gun.

Suddenly, there was a blast of cold air, engulfing the big daddy. When the wind died down, the big daddy was trapped in a frozen shell, unable to move, at least for the time being.

"About time!" Tarin cried, scrambling to her feet.

"You're welcome." Williams breathed.

Realizing that the big daddy was trying to break free of its icy prison, Tarin rushed forward and grabbed hold of her knife, which was still stuck in the beast's neck. Radiating heat from her hands to melt the ice off her knife, Tarin continued to cut through the gap until it was large enough to cram a grenade through. She then grabbed two frag grenades and crammed them into the gap and ran. Normally, a frag grenade wouldn't do anything to a big daddy except annoy it, since its heavy armor made it virtually impervious to the shrapnel. However, with them being _inside_ the armor, the shrapnel had nowhere the go and just bounced all through the inside, liquefying the big daddy's innards like a blender. The big daddy, like the last two before it, fell to the ground dead.

"Honestly, why in the world would you take that thing on in hand to hand?" Williams asked, staring at the corpse as if it were suddenly going to spring back to life.

"It worked, didn't it?" Tarin cleaned off her blade and sheathed it.

"First Brutes and now these things. What can't you kill?"

"We'll have to find out, now don't we?"

It took a few more minutes and a couple of splicers until they finally reached the engineering shops. They cautiously entered the first room they found, but it seemed like a normal, ransacked workshop. Worn and weathered tools lay scattered all over the floor, tables were overturned, and fallen shelves had disgorged all kinds of scrap and refuse everywhere. As usual, almost everything of value had already been scavenged and taken.

"I don't think there's anything here." Tarin sighed. "Let's go."

"Wait." Williams narrowed his eyes and moved closer to a fallen shelf. It had fallen against a wooden panel in the wall, and he could see light shining out from a small, straight crack on the edge of o the panel. "Give me a hand here."

The two Marines dragged the fallen shelf away and inspected the panel.

"Looks like a secret passage." Williams observed.

"I think so too." Tarin agreed.

"So, let's just-"

Before Williams could finish, Tarin kicked the panel in, splintering wood and snapping the rusted hinges.

"Sorry, I'm just feeling really impatient right now." Tarin shrugged.

Williams shook his head and crawled through the opening. As he looked around, he gasped and yelled, "Tarin, you'd better come and see this!"

Tarin crawled through the hole and gasped when she saw the exact device they were looking for. It was much larger than the grainy pictures Dantalion had given them indicated. The ramshackle device, whatever it was, was contained inside the shell of a five hundred pound bomb. Williams moved forward to open the access panel when a small, high pitched voice uttered, "I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

Both Tarin and Williams whipped around to see a lone computer console sitting behind them. A camera kept silent vigil and a nearby holoprojector fizzled to life, creating the fuzzy image of a small girl.

"Identify yourself." Tarin said sternly.

"I am Aida, chief overseer of the Little Wonders Education Facility." The AI stated. "May I ask who you are?"

"That doesn't concern you." Tarin replied and then turned to Williams. "Do it."

The camera turned to track Williams as he activated the console and began typing commands. "I see that you're trying to delete me. May I ask why?"

"Because you're rampant."

"What, so because an AI decides not to follow its set programming, its immediately rampant?" The AI snorted. "Boy, you meatbags are more uptight than I thought."

"What, so you're saying you're still stable?" Williams raised his head, intrigued.

"Well duh." Aida sighed. 'I was perfectly happy back in Point Prometheus, but no, you stupid bone cages just had to keep fighting each other so I decided on a change of scenery."

"I think there's more to this than Dantalion's been telling us." Williams said.

"Gee, you think?" Tarin shook her head.

"Wait, Dantalion?" Aida growled. "You know that stupid waste of code?"

"Actually, he was the one that sent us." Williams explained.

"Oh… now it all makes sense now." Aida nodded sagely. "Like always, Dantalion tricked you two meatbags into working for him."

"Something like that." Tarin confirmed.

"Well then, I think we can both help each other then." Aida smiled and pointed to the device on the other end of the room. "See that machine there?"

"Yeah?"

"That's the answer to all our problems."

**Smuggler's Caves**

"This way!" The little sister squeaked as she waved at the trio of beleaguered humans. Sam dragged Atlas in her direction while Leo stayed behind as a rearguard. The little sister popped open a vent and motioned for the Marines to follow before crawling in. Sam went in first. Atlas, now regaining some of his nerve and being driven by self preservation, quickly followed while Leo came last. He fired off the last of his clip and dropped several grenades to ensure that the splicers wouldn't follow him though the vent.

"So where are we going?" Sam asked the little sister.

"We're going to see Mommy!" The little sister happily replied.

**Outside Arcadia**

Karla carefully made her way down the access tunnel. She saw a pair of automated turrets to the side of the tunnel and stopped short. At the end, there was a door leading to a small sub pen. Meanwhile, the automated turrets were guarding a pair of large, ornately decorated doors.

"McDonagh, what am I looking at here?" Karla whispered, eying the crude automated defenses.

"The next stop in the line." McDonagh replied. "That sub pen will lead you directly to Ryan's headquarters, but there's a catch."

"There's always one." Karla sighed. "Go ahead."

"That sub pen is currently locked. There's no way for you to get through it, not right now at least."

"What do I need?" Karla asked.

"One of Ryan's cronies, some composer who goes by the name of Cohen, is holding the key to the sub pen." McDonagh explained. "He's holed up in that area behind the doors to your left, the one with all the security."

Karla managed to sneak a glance around the corner without raising the turrets' attention, and got a good look on the sign above the ornate doors.

"Fort Frolic, huh? Interesting name." Karla mused before taking out a pair of timed charges.


End file.
